Cyberchase: End Game
by Alisi Thorndyke
Summary: Hacker’s best plan yet: Trap the Cybersquad inside a video game of his creation and if they lose, its game over! Continued summary inside. Jackie/Slider and Matt/Inez pairings. R&R Please!
1. Beat The Clock!

Cyberchase: End Game

Starter A/N: Hey everyone. Here's another Cyberchase fic for you all to, hopefully, enjoy. Apologizes are given if this fic isn't what you folks are use to. Unleashing the imagination is what is happening here. The pairings are as usual: Jackie/Slider and Matt/Inez. Like I said, the usual. Well if nothing else, on with the legal stuff and then the story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Cyberchase because if I did, well it's already a TV show, so I lose either way lol. I just write about it, so what I'm doing is perfectly legal.

Summary: Hacker's best plan yet: Trap the Cybersquad inside a video game of his creation and if they lose, its game over! Will the kids be able to get to the final stage and win the game or will they loose and be trapped in the game forever?

Chapter 1: Beat The Clock!

Have you ever wondered how much time passes in Cyberspace compared to that in the real world? What would 15 minutes passing in Cyberspace be compared to that in the real world? 5 minutes or maybe 1 minute? While time is not a usual concern to most, it definitely can add pressure to those who have a time limit to meet. Such a situation can be said about what is taking place on the cybersite Wind Jammer Plato at this very moment.

Two teams are racing against the clock in order to be awarded the prize of this cook off competition and that would be the key to the Fearless Chef's cybersite where the winning team gets to come and go on the site as they please.

The two teams are Matt and Slider versus Buzz and Delete. The second team would have been Hacker and Buzz, but the last time Hacker competed, he was identified as a cheater and was immediately disqualified. Not only that, he nearly stole the Golden Hat award. From there, he was no longer able to compete in any of the Fearless Chef competitions.

Both teams have been given one hour and thirty minutes to complete two delicacies. The time now is 9:15 and with the first dish complete, the teams have exactly 15 minutes left to complete their last and final dish, which would be a Soufflé. Exactly one hour and fifteen minutes have already elapsed.

With the two boys continuing to race against the clock and their opponents, their girlfriends are back on the main set on the site cheering them on along with the rest of the crowd.

"Ok, we add one pinch of pepper and then let the Soufflé bake for seven minutes." Matt informs Slider as he reads over the recipe. "Afterwards, we add the powdered sugar on top and then send it off. Wait, who adds pepper to a soufflé? It's a desert not the main meal."

"Hey, we don't make the rules man." Slider replies, now adding the pinch of pepper.

Having added the pepper, Slider now places the Soufflé in the oven and sets the timer for seven minutes.

On Buzz and Delete's end, the two robots seem to be fairing ok, but are three steps behind Matt and Slider in making their Soufflé.

"What's next buzzy?" Delete asks. "We've already mixed the batter."

"Let me take a look." Buzz replies as he looks over the recipe. "Now that we've mixed the batter, we need a nine by thirteen inch pan to pour the batter into. After that, we add a pinch of pepper and then let it bake for seven minutes."

As Buzz begins looking for the proper dimensional pan to put their soufflé batter into, Delete now looks over at the boys' station and notices that they are way ahead in the competition.

"You might want to hurry it up buzz." Delete says going into a panic. "That earth brat and skater punk look to be almost finished. Remember what the boss said. He needs that key to that cyber site so he can begin his reign over cyberspace and if we lose, he'll take it out of us big time."

"I wouldn't be too concerned about us loosing Dee Dee." Buzz replies as he now finds and places the nine by thirteen inch pan on the counter. "I've got a plan that will guarantee that we win. Pour the batter and I'll be right back."

Delete does as he is told as Buzz slips out of sight.

While Matt and Slider are waiting for their soufflé to be done, they are chatting among themselves to past the time.

"If this soufflé turns out great, I'll be making one for Jackie." Slider says with a sly smile.

"Slider, sometimes I wonder about you." Matt jokes as he shakes his head.

"You wonder how wonderful I am or how good a cook I am?" Slider replies in a joking manner.

"Yes Slider, I wonder about both." Matt says.

Both boys begin laughing as Buzz now arrives in front of their station. Looking up, the small robot notices that Slider has his back turned and that he is out of Matt's vision. He also notices that the final ingredient to finish off their soufflé is sitting on the counter.

"Ok, the soufflé has four minutes left to bake." Matt says. "After that, we add the powdered sugar and send it off."

"I don't see them winning without the final ingredient." Buzz says to himself with an evil chuckle. "The boss will have that key in no time."

Quickly swiping the powdered sugar from the counter, Buzz makes his way back to his and Delete's station.

"Ok, one minute left." Matt informs Slider. "Get the powdered sugar ready."

"You got it." Slider replies.

Turning around, Slider notices that the powder sugar is gone. Looking all around the counter and behind the station, Slider can see that the sugar is nowhere to be found.

"Um Matt, the powder sugar is gone." Slider informs the red head.

"What do you mean it's gone?" Matt questions quickly turning to Slider.

"Just what I said, it's gone." Slider responds. "It might have blown away. This is Wind Jammer Plato after all."

"Great!" Matt begins panicking. "Now what are we going to do? We have to have that final ingredient before we send the soufflé off!"

"Alright, no need to panic." Slider says calmly. "I have an idea that will work. When the soufflé comes out, we'll coat the top of the soufflé with regular sugar. The heat from the soufflé will melt the sugar and give the look of powder sugar. I've seen my dad do it a million times when I was young."

"I sure hope this works." Matt replies.

"Trust me." Slider says with a nod.

The timer for their soufflé now sounds, letting the guys know that it is done. Matt removes it from the oven as Slider grabs the granulated sugar. Grabbing a table spoon, Slider coats the top of the soufflé with two table spoons of granulated sugar. As he said it would, the heat from the soufflé melted the granulated sugar, giving the top of the desert the look of powdered sugar. Matt quickly runs the soufflé over to the platform and hits the button. The soufflé is now on its way to be evaluated.

"With only nine minutes left to spare." Matt says, breathing a sigh of relief.

At Buzz and Delete's station, their soufflé has made it into the oven.

"What time is the soufflé suppose to come out buzzy?" Delete asks, looking at the clock.

"Not sure." Buzz answers. "Didn't you notice the time you put it in?"

Before Delete can answer Buzz, a thick cloud of smoke now arises from the oven.

Back at the main studio, Matt and Slider's soufflé has arrived as the host chef begins inspecting the dish.

"This soufflé looks absolutely delicious and smells delightful!" The chef announces. "It looks like we have a winner, but the only thing standing in the way of Team Motherboard's victory is their opponent and the delectable soufflé that they have prepared! With only five minutes left on the clock, time itself will determine who will be the new champion of the Fearless Chef!"

"Matt and Slider are so going to win this." Jackie says to Inez.

"You got that right Jax." Inez replies.

Back on Wind Jammer Plato, Buzz and Delete are trying to clear the smoke from the oven. Delete now removes the soufflé from the oven and notices that it has shrunk.

"Well, it's done." Delete says nervously.

"We can't send that off!" Buzz panics.

"Well, our jobs here are done." Matt says to Slider. "Let's head back to the main set."

Slider nods in agreement as the boys climb on their motorcycle and begins heading back to the main studio.

Back at the studio, the chef is continuing to look for Team Buzz's soufflé. With only nine minutes left on the clock, the crowd begins counting down.

"9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4." The crowd counts.

Matt and Slider now arrive at the studio.

"3, 2, 1!" The crowd finishes.

"And the time to cook is up!" The host chef announces. "Team Motherboard is the winner! Not only is Team Motherboard our new Fearless Chef champion, but they have also won today's prize, which would be the key to our cybersite, to go and come as they please! Congratulations!"

The crowd cheers wildly as the chef hands the key to Slider. He and Matt pose for the camera as their picture is taken. Both girls now run up to the guys and embrace them in a tight hug.

"You two were amazing!" Inez cheers.

"I knew you guys would win." Jackie says to Slider.

"Well ladies, you know how we do." Matt says as he and Slider high five each other. "If this were a video game, we would win hands down."

Wind Jammer Plato

Back on the windy cybersite, Buzz and Delete are trying to figure out what their next move is going to be.

"So what do we do now buzz?" Delete questions in confusion.

"Call Hacker and break the news to him." Buzz replies as he takes out his phone. "You call him."

"I don't want him yelling at me." Delete protests. "You call him."

"I don't want to get yelled at either." Buzz argues back.

"Well someone has to call him and let him know we lost to the earth brat and that skater punk." Delete says. "You have the phone, you call him."

Deciding not to go back and forth with Delete again, Buzz dials up Hacker with the other end picking up immediately.

"Hello boss, about the competition." Buzz begins. "We lost."

"WHAT?!?!?!?" Hacker yells into the speaker. "YOU TWO WORTHLESS DUNCBUCKETS!!!"

Loud yelling that can't be made sense of can be heard over the phone. Buzz takes the phone away from his would be ear. After two minutes of yelling, the other end hangs up. Buzz hangs up on his end and turns to Delete.

"Well, how'd he take it?" Delete asks.

A/N: Ok end of chapter 1 and I hope you all liked it. No action yet, but as the story goes on, it will get better. If you've read my other stories, it proves that I deliver my promises. Anyway, if something doesn't make sense, please let me know, but if you're good, please review letting me know what you think. Chapter 2 will be out the next moment I get.

Review Please!


	2. Data Transfer

Chapter 2: Data Transfer

'The cybersquad has once again outsmarted Hacker and his goons. He really needs to come up with much better plans.'

Control Central

Having outsmarted Hacker once again, the squad now arrives back at control central with the key to the Fearless Chef's cybersite.

"Hacker should have thought more clearly about sending Buzz and Delete in his place." Matt says with laughter. "They are no smarter than he is."

"You got that right man." Slider agrees.

Motherboard now appears on the main screen and notices that the squad is back.

"Hello Cyber mates and welcome back." Motherboard greets to the squad, now getting their attention. "Were you all successful in stopping Hacker from retrieving the key?"

"Without breaking a sweat Mother B." Matt replies with Slider presenting the key to her.

"Congratulations on another successful job well done team." Motherboard congratulates them. "I know I can always count on you."

"You sure can." Slider agrees with her.

"Congratulations, team, on an outstanding job." Dr, Marbles congratulates the team as he and Digit now enter the room. "I watched your entire competition and couldn't be more proud of you all. Now Hacker doesn't have any stepping stones to take over Cyberspace."

"Not with us taking charge he won't." Jackie replies.

"You got that right Jax." Inez says, taking Matt's hand.

"You guys were amazing!" Digit adds in. "I don't know why Hacker even bothers. He doesn't stand a chance against the best team in all of Cyberspace!"

"I don't know either." Inez replies. "He never wins."

"You got that right Nezzie." Matt says to her girlfriend.

Inez's expression quickly turns sour as she folds her arms and narrows her eyes at Matt.

"What? I still can't call you that?" Matt asks. "Even though you're my girlfriend?"

Matt's question is answered by Inez's expression not changing.

"Sorry Inez." Matt says as he places a kiss on her cheek.

"Well just know that Cyberspace is once again safe from Hacker." Jackie speaks.

"And I couldn't be more proud." A familiar voice to Slider says.

Hearing the voice, Slider turns round and spots his father, Coop.

"Dad!" Slider says in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd drop in to see how you were doing son." Coop replies with a smile. "It has been a while."

"Does Hacker know that you're here?" Slider questions with worry.

"Not at all son." Coop answers calmly as he approaches Slider, now embracing him in a hug. Slider returns the hug.

The two now separate.

"Dad, I would like for you to meet someone special." Slider says as he takes Jackie's hand. "This is my girlfriend Jackie. Jackie, you remember my dad."

"Nice to meet you Jackie." Coop greets. "My son talks a lot about you in the letters he has written to me."

"It's nice seeing you again Mr. Slider's dad." Jackie greets back.

"Please Jackie, just call me Coop." Coop permits.

"Ok, Coop." Jackie says with a smile, now turning to Slider. "You told your dad about me? That is so sweet."

"Well, I had to tell my dad about the girl who made me the luckiest guy in cyberspace." Slider replies, taking Jackie in his arms.

"So son, how long have you has this great catch?" Coop questions to Slider with a wink.

"Well dad." Slider begins. "It's a long, but very interesting story. Why don't we walk and talk about it."

Coop, Slider, and Jackie begins making their way to Motherboard's vault room, now leaving Matt, Inez, Dr. Marbles, and Digit in the room.

"Well, I'm going to make sure everything is straightened up in the spare room." Dr. Marbles says.

"I'll go with you doc." Digit offers.

With Dr. Marbles and Digit making their way to the spare room, that just leaves Inez and Matt with Motherboard.

"I'm going to go watch some TV." Inez says to Matt.

Giving him a peck on the cheek, she breaks off from him and begins making her way to the television that is stationed on the right side of the room. With that, Matt makes his way to the control panel to talk to Motherboard.

Northern Frontier

At the northern frontier, in the wreaker's garage, very loud yelling can be heard coming from there.

"I send you two to do a simple job and you lose to common children!" Hacker continues yelling. "You two are worthless! Incompetent! Idiots! Fools! But most of all dunce buckets! Let's not forget stupid!"

"But boss." Delete begins, but is cut off by Hacker.

"Silence!" Hacker shouts. "I didn't give you permission to speak! How could you lose to common earth children?! Small ones at that? I am beyond disappointed in the both of you!"

"But boss." Buzz begins, but is silenced by Hacker.

"Silence you dunce bucket!" Hacker yells. "I give you two a simple job, a very SIMPLE job and you find a way to screw it up like always! I've had enough of you two! Out of my sight now!"

The two robots now scramble out of the room, quickly getting out of range of the angry cyborg. With the robots gone, Hacker begins to calm his nerves.

"I almost, almost had that key to begin my reign, but those two dunce buckets screwed it up." Hacker says as he begins thinking to himself. "How am I going to get rid of those pesky kids now without that key?"

Continuing to thinking to himself, Hacker begins pacing around the garage. While thinking and pacing, hacker now enters the room where Buzz and Delete are and notices that they are playing their favorite game, Guards of the Dragon. The video game catches his attention as he watches the two play. Continuing to watch, he notices that Delete's player now takes a plunge, all while losing his last and final life. Having witnessed that, an idea now comes into his mind.

"A video game, of course!" Hacker says to himself with a twisted smile forming. "I can get rid of them in that manner, all while I control the game as the game master. Brilliant!"

"Oh Buzz, oh Delete." Hacker calls to them sweetly.

Hearing their names, both robots pause their game and turn to Hacker.

"My loyal subjects, have I ever told you two how brilliant you are?" Hacker speaks sweetly to them.

"No." Delete answers. "You said you were disappointed in us."

"Yeah, you said we are incompetent, idiots, dunce buckets…." Buzz begins, but is cut off by Hacker raising his hands.

"Well forget about what I said." Hacker replies. "I was wrong for saying that. You two have given me the best idea yet, which makes you brilliant."

Both robots turn to each other and exchange glances.

"How?" Delete asks in confusion as he and Buzz turn back to the cyborg.

"I will explain everything in a little bit." Hacker answers. "But for now, how would you two like to help me stage a little play?"

"Oh, is it a play about bunnies?" Delete asks, getting excited. "I just love bunnies."

"As a matter of fact, it is Delete." Hacker says to the tall robot. "All I need is the proper bunny bait."

Control Central

Having enjoyed defeating Buzz and Delete in the Fearless Chef competition, Matt and Slider have decided to recreate the competition by making banana smoothies while competing against each other. Jackie will be keeping the time as her stop watch is set for 5 minutes.

"Ok guys, here are the rules." Jackie begins. "You have 5 minutes to create the best banana smoothies that I have ever tasted. All of your ingredients are laid out for you. Get ready and go!"

Hitting the start button, both boys begin working on their smoothies. Quickly chopping up their bananas, both boys put them in their blenders simultaneously. Having added the bananas, they now add the milk and the pinch of sugar. Placing the lids on their blenders, both boys begin blending. Jackie now takes a look at her stop watch and notices the time. Two minutes have already elapsed with 3 minutes left on the clock.

"3 minutes left." Jackie announces.

Having blended their smoothies for 30 seconds, both boys stop their blenders and pours their smoothies simultaneously. Jackie now stops the watch and notices the time.

"Good job guys and nice timing too." Jackie says. "You both remained under 5 minutes. Now, time to taste your smoothies."

Picking up Slider's glass first, Jackie takes a sip of his smoothie. Being satisfied with his, she now picks up Matt's glass and takes a sip of his smoothie.

"Well, you two have certainly outdone yourselves with making these exceptional smoothies." Jackie announces. "So with this competition, there are no winners because you both are tied!"

"You did a great job man." Slider says to Matt. "You were an awesome competitor."

"You too man." Matt replies.

The incoming call alert suddenly begins beeping which gets everyone's attention.

"I am receiving an incoming call from the Northern Frontier." Motherboard announces.

"Put it through mother B." Inez requests.

Motherboard does just that with Hacker appearing on the screen.

"Hello kiddies." Hacker greets with a devious smile.

"What do you want hacker?" Matt demands.

"Oh how I can never get a proper greeting out of any of you." Hacker lightly chuckles. "A simple how are you would have done it."

"I'm pretty sure you didn't call just to make small conversation." Slider says in an annoyed tone. "Now get to the point!"

"Fine." Hacker simply replies. "If you are interested in knowing where your precious Dr. Marbles and Digit are, I have them."

Moving out of the way, the kids notice that Dr. Marbles is in a glass tube banging on the walls and Digit is in a golden cage. Hacker now reappears on the screen.

"If you ever want to see them again, come to the Northern Frontier at your own risk." Hacker says, now ending the transmission. Motherboard reappears on the main screen.

"I've been wondering where Dr. Marbles and Digit were." Inez wonders. "They were gone for an awful long time."

"Well, now we know what's been keeping them." Matt replies. "Ok team, we have our work cut out for us and hacker just gave us easy access. To the Northern Frontier!"

"Good luck cyber mates and be very careful." Motherboard wishes to them. "Who knows what Hacker maybe secretly planning."

"We'll always be one step ahead of him Mother B." Inez assures. "So whatever he maybe planning, we'll be ready."

The team now heads to the coupe's bay and boards the vehicle, soon to be on their way to the Northern Frontier.

* * *

The team now arrives on the Northern Frontier and parks the coupe. They immediately climb out with all four kids quickly making their way to the Grim Wreaker's garage. Upon entering, they begin looking around for signs of Dr. Marbles and Digit.

"Dr. Marbles, Digit!" Matt calls out.

Having called out to them, Matt doesn't get a response.

"No response." Matt says. "No telling where Hacker has them in here, it could take forever to look for them."

"Let's split up and look for them." Jackie suggests. "If we each get in groups of two, we each can take a section of the garage and cover more ground."

"Good idea Jackie." Slider agrees.

"That would make for a real bad idea!" Delete's voice says to the kids.

Hearing the voice behind them, the kids turn around and are immediately hit with a beam of light. The beam engulfs the team, changing their physical forms to the binary code 0101. With their entire forms changed to the binary code, they are now transferred into the television in the middle of the room.

Buzz, Delete and Hacker now come out of the shadows with Delete holding a light transmitter gun.

"Asta levista kiddies." Hacker says as he rubs his hands together.

"Yeah, Asa lavista!" Delete repeats, now breaking out into a maniacal laugh.

* * *

The team's data stream now makes out their figures as they arrive inside a video game world. They are no longer wearing their normal outfits, but have been changed into the outfits of the game. Matt is wearing a suit of armor that comes equipped with a sword, Slider is dressed as a mythical knight, who is also equipped with a sword along with an arm shield. Jackie is dressed as a mythical princess, complete with a dagger attached to her waist and with a tiara on her head and Inez is wearing a female warrior outfit. The kids begin looking themselves over as well as their surroundings.

"Hey, where are we?" Matt asks as he continues looking around. "We were just in the wreaker's garage."

"That's a good question." Slider replies, continuing to look himself over. "The last thing we heard before a beam of light hit us was Delete."

"I don't know where we are either." Jackie adds in. "But I am loving my new outfit."

"We appear to be in some kind of mythical world." Inez says, continuing to survey their surroundings.

"Good observation earth brat!" Hacker's voice rings out.

A window now appears in front of the team with Hacker's face appearing on it.

"Hacker!" Everyone says in unison.

"Where are we Hacker?" Slider demands an answer.

"I'm glad you asked." Hacker replies. "You are all inside my world, the world that I control and can do whatever I want with. Welcome to my video game, Dragon Gates."

Four hearts now appear over each team member, indicating how many lives they have currently.

"Oh and one more thing." Hacker continues. "If any of you make one false move that is not a part of the game, its game over forever! Welcome to level 1!"

The screen now disappears with Hacker's maniacal laugh echoing through the skies.

* * *

This doesn't look good for the team! They are inside a world that Hacker controls! Will they be able to make it through the game successfully and win? Keep reading to find out what happens next!

**Review Please!**


	3. Level 1

Chapter 3: Level 1

'Its level 1 of Hacker's twisted game and the kids now have to adjust. What will happen next?'

Inside The Game

Having being sucked into the game, the kids begins trying to plan out their next move.

"It was a trap!" Matt shouts angrily banging his fits against a rock. He regains his cool then turns back to his friends.

"Well, at least we know Digit and Dr. Marbles are safe." Slider says.

Inez nods in agreement.

"Too bad we can't say the same about ourselves." Jackie says, staying close to Slider's side.

"So, anyone know how this game works?" Matt asks, searching around the unknown area for an answer. "We can't play without knowing where we're going or what to do to get through the game."

"Hacker has zapped us into a game that he now controls." Inez explains, adjusting her glasses. "The only way we can escape is to figure this out for ourselves and play the game through."

"How could we let this happen!?" Jackie asks as she begins frantically pacing back and forth. "We fell for another one of Hacker's tricks! If I could come up with a good plan for us to escape without playing the game through, we'll be out of here in no time!"

Slider now walks up to his girlfriend and places his hands gently on her shoulders while trying to calm her.

"Jackie please calm down." Slider says with comfort. "You're going to give yourself a major migraine and being here won't help it any."

Having placed his hands on her shoulders, Slider begins lightly massaging them.

Jackie sighs in frustration as she begins trying to relax. Having calmed down enough, a smile now crosses Jackie's face.

"Thanks Slider." Jackie says, slithering closer to him and putting her head on his shoulder. He smiles and gently strokes his hand through her soft hair. She looks up at him and smiles.

"I love you." Jackie says, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.

"I love you too." Slider says soothingly, giving her a peck on the cheek as well. "It doesn't matter where we are Jacks, as long as I'm with you."

The two now part with Slider turned to the group.

"Don't worry guys, we can and will figure out a way out of this." Slider says, attempting to raise everyone's spirit. "We always do. I mean come on, we're the Cyber Squad."

"Sly's right." Matt agrees. "We've been in tougher situations than this and if we made it through those, then we'll make it through this one."

"We have?" Inez asks, arching an eyebrow.

Matt thinks for a second before realizing he's wrong.

"No." Matt replies, bowing his head in defeat.

"This place is so strange." Slider says to himself, looking over his armor. He now turns back to his companions as a question comes to mind.

"Hey guys, shouldn't we have like magical powers that go with our weapons?" Slider asks, indicating his armor. "With a game like this, we should have something like that."

Inez raises an eyebrow as she thinks over of Slider's question.

"You may be on to something Slider." Inez replies, Matt nodding his head in agreement.

"Yeah, in every video game I play, the hero has both weapons and magical powers." Matt says.

"The game is called Dragon Gates and our outfits say it's medieval and of course you would know, Matt." Jackie banters as she walks towards the group. "You of all people would have an idea about how these mystical games work and we do have the weapons our costumes came with. I'm not entirely sure about the magical powers though."

Jackie now picks up her dagger with Matt and Slider following as they take out their weapons.

"How do we use these?" Matt asks.

"It can't be too hard." Inez concludes. "I guess you just swing."

"Yeah cause 'just swinging' will help us a lot when we're under attack Nezzie." Matt retorts.

Inez narrows her eyes and glares at him.

"I mean Inez, Inez." Matt quickly corrects himself, noticing the dangerous look on his girlfriend's face. Inez now smiles in approval.

"Inez is right." Jackie says, slashing a few practice swings. "Maybe just swinging is all we need to do for now until we find bigger and better weapons."

Matt and Slider do a couple of practice swings with theirs, following Jackie's movements.

"Hey! Where's my weapon?" Inez asks. "I just realized that all of you got weapons while I didn't."

Just then, a brown crossbow appears in front of her. Her eyes widen in excitement.

"Awesome!" Inez shouts as she grabs her newly acquired weapon.

Matt frowns.

"Hey, not fair." Matt pouts. "Your weapon is cooler than mine. Wanna trade?"

Inez smiles and rolls her eyes.

"Well, now what?" Slider asks. "We all have our weapons."

Having asked that question, the ground begins to rumble beneath them.

"What's happening?" Jackie asks, panic stricken in her voice as she clings on to Slider.

The ground now cracks as a strange looking creature flies out of the crack that had just opened. The creature lands right in front of the four making, the ground quake even more. The creature has sharp dagger like teeth, blood red eyes, horns on the top of its head and wings connected to its back with steam blowing out of its nose with every breath it takes. The boys protectively push their girlfriends behind them for safety.

"What is that!?" Inez and Jackie ask with fear.

"Whatever it is, it's going down!" Slider says as he and Matt position their swords.

Control Central

"That is the absolute last time I help you straighten up." Digit says, making his way out of the spare room with Dr. Marbles as he rubs his head.

"I told you, it was a miss calculation." Dr. Marbles replies. "I didn't think straightening up would take that long."

"Well it took longer than it should have I'll tell you that much." Digit says shaking his head.

The two now walk over to Motherboard as she comes onto the screen. Laying eyes on the two who were reported missing, a baffled expression now crosses her face. They were reported missing by Hacker, but yet, are standing right in front of her.

"What's wrong Mother B?" Digit asks, taking notice of Motherboard's confused look.

"And where's the team?" Dr. Marbles questions, now looking around for Jackie, Inez, Matt, and Slider.

"I thought you two were with Hacker." Motherboard replies, still as confused as ever.

"Why would we be with that piece of Cyber trash?" Digit spits out.

"From what Hacker announced, he has abducted you two." Motherboard replies. "The Cyber mates went to rescue you two from the Northern Frontier."

"How could that be?" Digit asks in confusion. "Me and the doc were in the spare room the entire time and for as long as it took, I can see how that mistake was made."

"If you two were there all along, then….." Motherboard begins, but her words trail off.

"Then?" Dr. Marbles says, hoping Motherboard would finish her thought.

"They are in trouble!" Motherboard concludes. "Hacker staged a kidnapping to lure the squad to the Northern Frontier."

A worried expression now crosses Digit's face.

"Motherboard, you have to contact them immediately!" Digit shouts frantically.

"I will begin trying to track them now." Motherboard says, as she begins trying to pin point their location.

After a minute of trying to locate the cyber squad, Motherboard's scanner now turns up with scattered results.

"That's quite odd." Motherboard speaks up. "Their physical forms are not being detected, but I am picking up traces of their life signs on the Northern Frontier."

"What?" Digit asks in confusion. "How is that possible?"

Dr. Marble now steps forward.

"Perhaps their DNA has been formatted differently." He guesses as Digit raises an eyebrow.

"Formatted like how?" Digit asks.

"That, my cybird friend, is questionable." Dr. Marble answers. "But If I had to guess, I would say that if traces of their life signs are on the Northern Frontier, but their physical forms aren't being detected in cyberspace, then I would say that somehow Hacker has found a way to hide them where even Motherboard's scanners won't be able to pick them up."

"Are you saying that Hacker has turned them into data somehow?" Digit asks.

"I wouldn't put it past him." Dr. Marbles replies. "However, that is a very strong possibility."

Inside the Game

"It's a gargoyle!" Inez concludes after dodging a few attacks from the now-not-so-mysterious creature.

"Well, lets kick it's butt!" Matt shouts, now charging towards the flying creature.

He swings his weapon at the gargoyle, slashing its arm open. The creature now seizes flying and disappears completely.

"Alright!" Matt shouts as he jumps with excitement.

"Matt you did it!" Inez shouts, running up and hugging him.

Just then, several more creatures rise from the ground. The two lovers now have looks of shock.

"Ah crap!" Matt says, getting back into his fighting stance as well as Inez. "There's more?!"

Northern Frontier

"With my brilliant mind, I have devised a way to trap the kids and beat them at my own game." (no pun intended) Hacker gloats, sitting in his recharger chair as he watches Delete summon more monsters with the golden game pad known as the Master Controller.

On the screen, it shows the kids trying to ward off the creatures that have been summoned. Hacker chuckles in amusement at the sight. Buzz raises an eyebrow and looks over to where Delete is sitting.

"Hey Dee Dee, let me play now." Buzz begs.

"No way!" Delete shouts back. "Wait your turn!"

Buzz frowns as he now takes hold of the controller and the game of tug of war begins. Hacker watches in disappointment as the two fights over the controller.

"I wanna control it!" Buzz shouts.

"No! I wanna!" Delete shouts back.

Getting tired of his henchmen's useless battling, Hacker's hand now comes between the two as he snatches the controller away.

"I will control the game for it was my brilliant idea!" Hacker shouts at the two. "If I leave this controller with you two, somehow you dunce buckets will find a way to screw this up!"

The two robot henchmen sit back down and pout at their loss.

"Everything is going exactly according to plan." Hacker says with an assuring and mischievous grin. "Buzz, fire up the main computer. I have a little announcement to make to Motherboard."

Inside the Game

Having defeated the monsters, the kids are trying to catch their breaths.

"Boy, am I glad that that's over." Matt says taking in deep breaths.

"Got that right dude." Slider agrees, now getting up and looking around the battle area.

"And this is only level one." Inez says. "Who knows how bad level two will be."

Jackie nods as she straightens out her dress. The ground then begins to quake as a sling shot sound is made. Hearing the sound, everyone begins looking around for the source. Now looking up, the four are startled to see a giant boulder heading their way.

"Duck and take cover everyone!" Slider shouts as he grabs Jackie and holds her tight.

Matt does the same with Inez as they take cover against a wall. The boulder now rolls over them as it continues rolling away.

"What was that about?" Jackie asks.

"I don't know, but this could be Hacker's best plan yet." Matt says. "As much as I hate to admit it."

More shots are fired as more boulders are released from their resting place in the mountains above the kids. Matt now looks up and notices a gang of boulders heading straight for them.

"If we want to live to see level 2, we better make tracks before those boulders smash us to pieces." Matt says in a panic with everyone else looking up and noticing the boulders heading straight for them.

Chancing it, the kids now break into a run with the boulders hot on their trails.

Control Central

Dr. Marbles and Digit have begun pacing while trying to come up with a logical explanation as to what Hacker might have done with the team. Motherboard watches on at the two with nothing of her own to say.

"Traces of their life signs found, but they themselves can't be found." Dr. Marbles continues pondering and pacing.

"Possibly turned into data, but their physical forms not in cyberspace." Digit also ponders, continuing to pace.

"None of this makes sense." Dr. Marbles speaks, now halting his pacing. "I can't come up with one logical explanation as to what Hacker could have done with the kids as to why traces of their life signs can be found, but the team themselves can't be."

"I got nothing." Digit simply states with his pacing coming to a halt as well. "How can we have one factor without the other? Something is missing major league and without knowing what that something is, this entire situation doesn't make any sense."

"I wish I could be of assistance, but I am just as confused as you two are." Motherboard adds in.

Just then, the incoming call alert begins beeping.

"I am receiving an incoming call from The Northern Frontier." Motherboard announces. "This might help us piece together the last piece to the puzzle."

"Put it through." Dr. Marbles requests.

Motherboard does just that with Hacker appearing on the screen with a wide grin on his face. Dr. Marbles and Digit both roll their eyes at the sight of the cyborg.

"What do you want Hacker?" Digit questions. "And whatever it is, make it quick. We're in the middle of a crisis here."

"Oh, maybe I could be of assistance in anyway?" Hacker offers, trying to sound sincere.

"I seriously doubt it!" Dr. Marbles rejects. "This crisis involves you and what you've possibly done with the cybersquad!"

"I was wondering when you would mention your precious cybersquad." Hacker replies. "Let's just say that I've sent them on a quest."

"A quest?" Dr. Marbles asks as he raises an eyebrow.

"Take a look for yourself." Hacker says.

The screen now switches from Hacker and to a screen of the squad. They are running for their lives from humungous boulders and are not wearing the outfits they were wearing before they left for the Northern Frontier. The screen now switches back to Hacker.

"What did you do with them Hacker?!" Dr. Marbles demands an answer. "I want answers this instant!"

"That's one thing that I've always admired about you Marbles." Hacker begins. "Your willingness to get straight to the point."

"I believe the doc asked you a question now get to it!" Digit adds in, his voice filled with irritation.

"If you all must demand an answer this instant, I've trapped the cybersquad inside a video game of my creation called Dragon Quest." Hacker answers. "They can't escape until they have played the game all the way through and if they make one false move at any time during the game, its game over forever!"

Beginning to laugh manically, Hacker ends the transmission with Motherboard reappearing on the screen.

"At least now we have the answers we have been looking for." Dr. Marbles sighs heavily.

"Now what are we going to do?!" Digit questions as he begins panicking. "We can't just let the kids stay trapped in that twisted video game! Who knows what Hacker has planned for them on any one of those stages!"

"I know exactly what we're going to do." Dr. Marbles speaks, his voice becoming light with an idea. "Just stay here and I'll return in a moment."

Dr. Marbles now runs off, just leaving Digit with Motherboard.

"What do you think he has planned?" Digit asks, now turning to Motherboard.

"I'm just as mystified as you Digit." Motherboard answers.

Northern Frontier

The three are continuing to sit there, their attention heavily focused on the game in front of them.

"This game is fun boss!" Delete says with happiness.

"And it's only going to get that much better my robot friend." Hacker replies as a twisted smile finds its way onto his features.

Inside the Game

The four are continuing to run from the boulders. Seeing an opening in a wall up ahead, the team now reaches it and ducks inside with Slider grabbing onto Jackie and Matt grabbing onto Inez. With the four inside the opening, the boulders now roll pass them.

"We survived." Jackie sighs in exhaustion.

"Yeah we did, but that was tough and we're still only on the first level." Matt says.

"Guys, who do you think released those boulders?" Inez asks the group.

"No idea, but it had to be one of Hacker's video game minions." Slider guesses.

"Well, at least we're done with level 1." Jackie says, now spotting the doors that lead to Level 2 ahead of them. "There's the entry way to level 2. Who knows what awaits us there."

"There is only one way to find out." Slider says, now grabbing Jackie's hand. "We go in and give it all we've got. If Hacker wants us to play the game through, let's show him that we can play his game better then he can."

Matt and Inez nod in agreement as they now join hands. Coming out of the opening, the team checks their surroundings for any signs of danger. Seeing that there aren't any signs of immediate threats, they team now make their way to the level 2 doors.

"Here goes nothing." Matt says as he takes in a deep breath.

With that, everyone walks through the level 2 doors with them closing behind the team.

Out in Cyberspace

Out in the depths of Cyberspace, the data streams of the game are running smoothly over the cybersite Discardia. The magnetic force of the game's data streams now pulls metal pieces from Discardia and into the data flow of the game. The scraps of metal that are being pulled from Discardia are being turned into the same binary code as the game as it enters the stream swiftly. The data soon starts to build up slowly as it continues entering……..

* * *

Whoa! Level 1 was some trip, but the kids survived and have successfully reached level 2! What awaits them there and what's the deal with Discardia? Keep reading to find out! Next chapter, Level 2!

See you all in Cyberspace!

**Review Please!**


	4. Trouble Brewing On Level 2

Chapter 4: Trouble Brewing On Level 2

'The team has successfully completed level 1 and has moved on to level 2. What awaits them there?'

With the scrap metal pieces from Discardia being swept into the data stream of the game, the binary code is continuing to build up with the outline of a figure being made. The last of the scrap metal now enters the stream with the outline of the figure becoming complete. With the streaming complete, the binary code forms into a tall, statuesque figure wearing black slacks, a white shirt, and a long black coat. The appearance of the figure has blonde hair, blue eyes, and tan skin. His overall appearance is quite handsome.

The figure begins looking himself over as well as his surroundings.

"Where am I?" He asks, continuing to look around. "What is this place?"

Continuing to look around, he now spots the data stream coming in and notices the source it is coming from, which is the Northern Frontier. Seeing that, he now gains a grin.

"The Northern Frontier." He says, continuing to grin deviously. "If the stream is coming in from the Northern Frontier, then I must be back in cyberspace, but this place doesn't look anything like the Northern Frontier, at least not from what I can remember. Well it's no matter, I'm back and it's time to have a little fun."

Walking over to the stream, he holds out his hands. Concentrating on the stream, the data stream now builds up two tall, stocky and built figures that quickly form into identical Cyclops with cavemen clubs. Seeing what was created, the figure smiles.

"Perfect." He says as he rubs his hands together. "Now that I am back, just what can I do to start my little celebration?"

Beginning to look around the area for possible ideas, he now spots the live video feed of Hacker's video game, featuring the kids as they talk amongst themselves at the start of level 2. Getting a closer look at the feed, an idea comes to him.

"Well, it looks as if I was brought back to life inside a video game." The figure speaks. "I guess I won't have to think too hard about what I need to do because it's all right in front of me. I've always wanted to be a video game master and now, I'll have my chance. I know exactly what stage of this game I'll be ruling on and if this game doesn't have an ending, I'll see to it I give it one."

Dragon Gates Level 2

Having entered through the gates to level 2, the team are trying to come up with a plan on how they are going to make it through level 2.

"Ok, we made it through level 1." Matt begins. "Barely, but we made it out. So what's the plan to get through this stage?"

"Before we make any moves, we first have to know what we're dealing with and get organized." Inez says. "So what do we know? We know that we are in a mythical video game called Dragon Gates and in these games, we are dealing with mythical creatures such as dragons, trolls, and such."

"Your point?" Slider asks, not understanding Inez's logic.

"My point is, this level is a dungeon and in mythical games such as these, what do levels like this one normally contain that will be helpful to us?" Inez continues.

"Well from the games I've played like this, dungeon stages contains treasure chests of supplies that we can use, spare weapons and clues on how we can get through the stage without losing a life." Matt answers.

"Great." Inez says. "Matt, I'm going to appoint you leader through this stage because you have the most knowledge on things such as these."

"So technically, I'm in charge once again, considering I am the leader of the cybersquad." Matt gloats. "You're the best Inez."

Giving Inez a peck on the cheek, he now wields his sword.

"Ok everyone, follow me." Matt says.

Taking a step forward, Matt now trips over a treasure chest and lands face first on the ground.

"And you chose him to be our leader?" Slider asks. "We'll be lucky to get out of here with only one life left with him in charge."

"Hey, what did I trip over?" Matt asks as he gets to his feet.

"A treasure chest!" Jackie cheers, eyeing the chest in front Matt's armored feet. "Maybe it contains more weapons."

"Only one way to find out." Slider says as he now opens the chest.

With the chest open, everyone notices what the treasure chest contains. There is one blue, red, and purple potion, spare daggers, and a few golden snelfu tokens.

"More weapons!" Jackie cheers as she picks up one of the daggers.

"Potions!" Inez cheers as well, now grabbing the potions.

"Snelfus tokens?" Slider asks in confusion as he picks up the coins. "How are these going to help us?"

"Hey, there's a note." Jackie notices, now grabbing the note out of the chest.

Reading it over, she finds out that the note contains instructions on how to use the supplies in the chest.

"What does it say?" Inez asks.

"It says that the blue potion is a healing potion, the purple potion is for strength and the red potion is a life potion." Jackie explains. "The snelfu coins are for buying weapons and needed supplies, and the daggers are extra. The next treasure chest is at the end of this stage near the entry to level 3."

"These supplies couldn't have come at a better time." Slider exclaims. "By the way Matt, you better hold on to the life potion. You'll be needing it more than any of us will."

"Very funny Slider." Matt replies as he rolls his eyes.

"Ok, now that we have our supplies, let's get through level 2." Jackie says.

Putting their supplies away, everyone begins on their way. While the team is continuing on their journey, they are unaware they are closely being watched and not just by hacker.

The Final Stage 

On level 12, the final stage, the figure has set up his headquarters in the castle that closely resembles Dracula's Castle and is monitoring the team on the live video feed of the game. On each side of him are his Cyclops guards. Continuing to watch them, he notices how easy going the stage appears to be, which brings a devious grin to his face.

"It seems that they have it way too easy." He says as he begins stroking his chin in a thinking manner. "I guess I'm going to have to change that. After all, what's a video game without a few interesting and entertaining challenges?"

A transparent panel now appears in front of him as he hits a red button.

* * *

"Has anyone else noticed how easy this level is compared to level 1?" Jackie asks.

"You're right Jackie." Inez agrees. "This level is much easier then level 1."

Just then, huge spikes suddenly emerge from the ground along with buzz saws suddenly emerging from the ceiling and walls. Noticing this, the team stops dead in their tracks with Slider and Matt grabbing onto their girlfriends, protecting them.

"I spoke too soon." Jackie says, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Now what are we going to do? There is no way that we are going to make it through those things alive."

The buzz saws are spinning around in a circular up and down manner while the spikes are disappearing and emerging from ground. Inez notices the motions of both and gains an idea.

"Follow their patterns." Inez speaks up.

"Follow what patterns?" Slider asks, continuing to watch their possible doom.

"If you notice how each are moving, we can easily follow their patterns so we can make it around them." Inez clarifies. "Notice how the saws are moving in a circular up/down motion and the spikes are emerging and disappearing? If we watch them long enough and time their movements, we can easily make it around each and get to the other side."

"I see what you're saying." Matt replies. "So when one moves one way, the other will let us know it's movements as well so we know when to make our move. Brilliant Inez!"

Loosening his embrace from Inez, Matt now walks ahead of everyone.

"Matt, what are doing?" Slider asks, confused as to what the red head is thinking.

"I'm going to go first." Matt replies. "I will make it across first and then the rest of you follow behind me."

"That's not a good idea Matt." Inez protests. "We haven't gotten an accurate time for each pattern yet."

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing." Matt confidently replies to his girlfriend.

With the spike disappearing back into the ground, Matt takes one step forward, unaware that a buzz saw is heading his way. The buzz saw now hits Matt and makes him disappear.

"MATT!" Everyone yells.

The red head now reappears next to Inez as three hearts appear over him, indicating how many lives he has left.

"Hey, what just happened?" Matt questions in confusion. "Did I make it across?"

"No, you were hit by a buzz saw!" Inez replies, irritation flooding her tone. "You only have 3 lives left because you did what you always do, rush into things without thinking them through first! We have to time the movements of the saws and spikes so we can make it safely to the other side. No offense Matt, but I'll be taking over as leader from this point on."

Slider takes out the red life potion and hands it to Matt.

"Just in case." Slider says.

Matt grunts as he takes the potion in defeat.

Inez continues studying the patterns of the spikes and buzz saws, timing their motions. When the saws draw up, the spikes emerge and when the saws come down, the spikes withdraw. One minute to be exact between both.

"Ok everyone, I've got the pattern and the time." Inez announces. "When the saws draw up, the spikes emerge, but when the saws come down, the spikes withdraw. Each of their movements are exactly one minute apart. All we have to do is wait until each are clear and then we make our move."

"Great plan Inez." Slider congratulates her.

Taking notice of the saws and spikes, everyone sees the pattern that Inez pointed out. With that, the team begins making their way through the danger zone with Inez going first, Matt second, Jackie third and Slider last. Being on the other side, they all breathe a sigh of relief.

"So glad we made it through that death trap." Jackie says, releasing an exhausted sigh. "I thought we'd never make it."

"Well if it wasn't for my Inez's strategy, we wouldn't have made it." Matt says as he takes Inez in his arms. "What would we do without you Inez?"

"You'd be down to only one life." Inez replies with a sweet smile.

"At least the worst of it is over." Slider says.

Having said that, a swarm of flying dragons now enter the area with their screeching tearing through the air. Hearing their screeching, everyone looks up and notices the dragons heading right for them.

"It looks as if the worst is yet to come!" Matt says. "Those things are heading right for us!"

"When the going gets tough, the tough fights back!" Inez says determined as she wields her crossbow.

Grabbing three arrows, Inez positions them in the crossbow. Getting a lock on three of the dragons that are heading their way, she releases all three simultaneously. The arrows now hit the dragons, instantly destroying them.

Slider now grabs his sword and slings it towards one of the dragons. The sword stabs the dragon with his instantly vanishing. With that dragon gone, a boomerang is left behind.

"That dragon left behind a weapon." Matt points out.

Jackie eyes the boomerang and quickly grabs it. With a dragon heading straight for her, she quickly sends the boomerang in its direction. The boomerang now comes in contact with dragon, destroying it. The boomerang now makes its way back into Jackie's hand.

"Don't ever mess with the Princess!" Jackie says.

Matt now takes out both daggers that were in the chest and slings them at the remaining two dragons. The daggers impact the dragon, instantly destroying them.

"That's all of them." Slider says. "Before another swarm of any kind shows up, we better get out of here!"

Everyone nods in agreement as they continue on their way, having destroyed a swarm of dragons and successfully getting through a death trap.

Level 12

The figure has witnessed the team's successful triumph.

"So they made it through my little challenge did they?" He says, continuing to monitor them. "Well then, it's time to beef things up, but before I do that, I'll first have to eliminate the one factor that is giving them the advantage."

He now hits a green button on his transparent panel.

Northern Frontier

Hacker, Buzz and Delete are also monitoring the team's progress through the game. Hacker, who witnessed Matt's contact with the saw, couldn't be happier that his game plan is working flawlessly.

"If I do say so myself, this is my best plan yet!" Hacker gloats. "I'm more of a genius then I thought."

"The buzz saws and spikes were an excellent idea boss." Delete praises the cyborg.

"The greatest." Buzz adds in.

"That, my robot friends, is why I am such a genius." Hacker replies. "Even though those were not a part of the original plan, they fit into the scheme all the same so why fix what isn't broken. Whatever it takes to help me get rid of those earth brats once and for all, I'll take it!"

Control Central

Digit and Motherboard are awaiting Dr. Marbles return with his plan. Digit has begun pacing back and forth nervously while thinking about the squad and Motherboard is watching him with an exhausted look on her face. For as much pacing as Digit is doing, she can swear he is going to pace a hole in the floor.

"What is taking him so long with that plan of his?" Digit asks as he continues pacing. "I can't stand waiting! Who knows how much longer the kids can survive in that game. We have to do something!"

"Please do not worry Digit." Motherboard says in a calm voice. "I'm sure whatever Dr. Marbles has planned, he will return soon with a concise plan as to how we are going to help the cyber squad."

"I sure hope so." Digit replies. "Who knows how much has happened to them since we have no way of viewing or controlling the game from our side."

"That is all behind us now!" Dr. Marbles voice now rings out.

Digit turns around and spots Dr. Marbles heading in his direction with two silver game controllers in his hands.

"I have the answer to our problems right here." Dr. Marbles, now holding up the pads up so both Digit and Motherboard can see. "I have designed these game controllers so that we can control the game from our end."

"Great plan doc, but how are we going to do that?" Digit questions. "That's hacker's game. We would have to be where he is to control the game."

"Not exactly my cybird friend." Dr. Marbles replies. "By having Motherboard stream the game to her network, I can easily gain access to the game that way and when I hook up these controllers, they will immediately link up to the game, thus giving us control over what happens to the team. That maybe Hacker's game and he controls what goes on in it, but we will have the power to control what happens to the team while they are in the game."

"Brilliant doc!" Digit praises him. "Even better then I'd hoped for!"

"Motherboard, will you please do the honors?" Dr. Marbles requests.

"Certainly doctor." Motherboard obliges.

Searching through her communication log, Motherboard now finds the video link to the game for when Hacker contacted them earlier to announce what he has done with the team. Her image on the screen disappears only to be replaced with the image of the kids in the game. Dr. Marbles now plugs both controllers into Motherboard's control panel. With the pads hooked up, they immediately link up the game.

"Digit, you are player one and I'm player two." Dr. Marbles says, now handing Digit the first player pad. "Now, let's help the team through the game!"

"You don't have to tell me twice doc." Digit says as he grips is game controller.

Dragon Gates

Having made it through saws, spikes and a hoard of dragons, the team are continuing on their way through the level. They now approach a bridge, which leads to the gateway to level 3.

"Hey, we've come to a bridge." Matt points out.

"And on the other side is the gateway to level 3!" Jackie cheers. "Let's get out of this death trap!"

Everyone begins crossing the bridge, running across one at a time. As they continue crossing the long bridge, they are unaware that the start of the bridge has snapped behind them. With Matt behind everyone, he turns around and notices that the bridge is falling apart ply by ply.

"Guys, the bridge is giving way!" Matt warns them. "We have to make it across now!"

With that warning, everyone picks up speed. Being half way across, the bridge is continuing to give way quicker and quicker.

"We're not going to make it!" Matt panics.

Control Central

Digit and Dr. Marbles are noticing the bridge giving way under the team.

"Another one of Hacker's tricks!" Digit sneers. "Not on my watch!"

Hitting the pause button, the bridge has now been paused.

* * *

Continuing to run at break neck speeds, everyone now makes it to the other side of the bridge, unaware that it has been stopped. Being on the other side, they all begin catching their breath.

"If I said it once, I'll say it again." Matt says through his heavy breathing. "This maybe hacker's best plan yet. I think this time he's really got us."

"And like I've said before, we will get out of this." Slider replies. "I don't care how many brilliant plans Hacker thinks he has. He hasn't and never will stop the cybersquad."

Having caught her breath enough, Inez now looks ahead of them and notices that the bridge is suspended, including the parts that were falling away.

"Is it me or does the bridge looks like it's been paused?" Inez questions.

Matt, Slider, and Jackie looks ahead and notices the exact same thing.

"It's not just you Inez." Jackie replies. "I see it too."

"Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking?" Matt asks as he turns to everyone.

"You don't think Motherboard and Dr. Marbles has anything to do with what happened to the bridge pausing do you?" Slider asks Matt.

Matt nods yes with a sly grin creeping on to his face.

"That means that they found a way to link into the game to help us." Inez says cheerfully.

"Well, we're still stuck here until we play the game through." Jackie replies. "I say as long as we have the advantage, we might as well take it. The gateway into level 3 is just a few steps away. Let's get out of here."

Everyone now turns around and are about to make their way to level three's doors when a big black dragon suddenly appears in front of the doors, instantly stopping them. The dragon looks down at them and roars.

"This must be the end of the level enemy." Slider says.

"Not a problem!" Inez says a she wields her crossbow. "We can take him!"

The dragon now turns to Inez, his attention fully focused on her. Roaring once more, the dragon now takes flight while grabbing Inez in the process.

"Inez!" Everyone yells.

"Hey, put me down!" Inez yells as she begins struggling to get out of the dragon's claw.

"Put her down right now!" Jackie yells as she takes out her boomerang.

With the dragon in the air, Jackie slings her boomerang in its direction. The boomerang comes in contact with the dragon, but doesn't do any harm. The dragon continues flying off with Inez.

"We have to go after her!" Matt panics. "The last thing we need is to get separated in this game and who knows where that dragon is taking her!"

"We will, but not before knowing where we can find her." Slider says calmly to Matt. "I've played games like this before myself and somewhere along the way, there are always clues. We will find clues to where we can find Inez before we leave this game, but for now, let's just proceed to level 3 and hope we find some clues there."

Taking in Slider's reasoning, Matt nods in agreement. The remaining teammates now enter level 3, completely passing up the chest of supplies at the entrance.

* * *

Man what a trip level 1 was and who is the guy now controlling hacker's game? Keep reading to find out what happens next! Next chapter, Level 3 with a BIG twist!

**Review Please!**


	5. Video Game Master

Chapter 5: Video Game Master

'The team has made it to level 3, but Inez has been carried off by a dragon to who knows where in the game. What awaits the team on level 3?'

Everyone, but Inez has entered level 3 and that level is a castle level. Inez being carried off by the dragon on level 2 is still playing back in Matt's mind as he worries about where the dragon could have possibly taken her. He did have a point about them getting separated. Since they don't know about the game and am learning about it as they go along, it is a VERY bad idea to get separated.

"I'm worried about Inez." Matt speaks up. "I can't help but worry about where the dragon could have taken her. I say we go back to level 2 and go after her! We have to save Inez! It is just like hacker to pull something like this! He'll do anything to win, even if it means cheating to get his way!"

"Matt, we can't go back and aimlessly go looking for Inez on level 2." Slider replies. "We can't go back to level 2 anyway, we've already completed the stage and like I said, there will be clues throughout the game as to where we can find her. We can't leave this game without her and we won't. You just have to trust me on this. Where ever she is, I know she is ok. We will find her."

"Slider is right Matt." Jackie agrees. "There is no way we are going to leave Inez behind in here and as we continue going through the game, we will find her. Hacker may think this is his 'best idea yet', but as always, the cyber squad will find a way to get around this as we've done everything else he has put us through."

Matt nods in agreement as he begins calming his nerves.

"You guys are right." Matt says. "Let's just get through this stage and hope to find a clue on Inez's whereabouts."

"In Inez's place, I will be our leader and lead us through this stage." Slider says. "I've played a lot of Castle related games before so I know exactly what to expect in these stages and know what to avoid so we can get through without losing a life. Just follow my every word and stick closely by me."

Jackie and Matt nod in agreement to Slider's instructions. With that, the three begins their journey through level 3. Taking a few steps forward, the three now approach a lava filled moat that has tiles hovering above it as they move in a back and forth pattern.

"This just keeps getting better and better." Matt says sarcastically.

"We can make it across." Slider says, keeping his eyes on the tiles. "According to Inez's logic, follow the tiles' pattern. If we do that, we will know exactly when to make our move."

"I feel so safe with you Sly." Jackie says, hugging up next to Slider.

"That's a great idea Slider, but there seems to be one part missing from your idea." Matt says, now spotting a hoard of vampire bats heading right for them.

"What's that?" Slider asks as he turns to Matt.

"Those." Matt simply replies as he points ahead of him to the bats.

Slider and Jackie look to where Matt is pointing and notices the hoard of vampire bats coming right for them as well.

"We have to cross that boiling hot moat and deal with those bats too?!" Jackie begins panicking. "Is it even possible?"

"It's very possible." Slider says as he wields his sword and places Jackie behind him. "Instead of killing two birds with one stone, we slay these bats first and then make it across the moat."

"Let's do it Slider." Matt says, now wielding his sword.

Both warriors are in position to bring down the hoard of vampire bats.

Level 12

The figure is watching the remaining team mates as they are surrounded and are being attacked by the hoard of bats. Continuing to watch, he grins at the sight.

"It appears that my changes have livened up this otherwise boring game." The figure speaks with satisfaction. "Don't you agree?"

He now turns around to Inez. Her hands are tied behind her back, her feet are tied together in front of her and strong tape is over her mouth. Inez shakes her head no while doing her best to talk, despite the tape over her mouth.

"My changes aren't making the game fun?" He asks Inez, pretending to be hurt. "You've hurt my feelings now."

Inez continues trying to talk as she begins fighting against her bonds. One of the cyclop guards sneers at Inez, instantly hushing her with her struggling coming to a pause as well.

"Well, if my changes haven't livened up this game as of yet, I have plenty more tricks up my sleeve that will do it." The figure says, now turning back to the video feed. "And I know something that will make this game very interesting very fast."

Motioning for one of cyclop guards to stand before him, the guard does as it is told.

"I have a little job for you." The figure says. "This is what I want you to do."

He begins giving the guard his instructions.

Control Central

Having helped the kids in level 2 using the controllers, Dr. Marbles have begun configuring the game pads' advanced functions.

"Just a few more adjustments and the configurations of the controllers will be complete." Dr. Marbles speaks.

"You picked now to configure these things?" Digit asks. "The pads work fine doc. We have the control you wanted over the game so we can help the kids out. If you keep playing with the configurations, the kids will be toast!"

"I want to make sure the pads work up to their full potential with the game Digit." Dr. Marbles replies. "By programming their advance functions, we can do more than just help the kids, but actually become one of their players."

"Like control them?" Digit asks in confusion.

"Precisely!" Dr. Marbles confirms, now finishing the advance configurations. "The advanced functions have been configured and are complete."

Pressing the A button on his pad, the screen now returns to the kids in the game. Dr. Marbles and Digit both notice Slider, Matt, and Jackie are fighting off a hoard of vampire bats while standing dangerously close to the boiling hot lava filled moat.

"Hacker just doesn't quit does he?" Digit sneers. "Hang in there kids, we've got ya back!"

Hitting the B button, the vampire bats stop attacking the team and instantly disappear. Having stopped the hoard of bats, Digit now presses the A button, which stalls the hovering tiles above the lava moat.

"Way to go Digit!" Dr. Marbles cheers. "You have just tested one of the advanced functions of the controllers and they work perfectly!"

"That's what happens when you call Digit Leboid in for the job!" Digit gloats. "Was there ever any doubt doc?"

"Now, let's get the team through this level and soon through the rest of this twisted game!" Dr. Marbles says with determination.

Dragon Gates (Level 3)

With the bats gone, Slider, Jackie, and Matt begin looking around, wondering what happened to the hoard they were fighting off.

"There were a swarm of bats attacking us a minute ago." Matt says dumbfounded. "What happened? They just vanished."

"Hacker isn't going easy on us, that's for sure." Jackie adds in.

"I'm going to go with your assumption on this, Matt." Slider says. "Dr. Marbles and Motherboard has definitely found a way to control the game, completely overriding Hacker's control. Hacker wouldn't go easy on us like this, so who else would that leave?"

"That means that they are also responsible for the tiles standing still above the moat." Jackie points out, noticing the tiles aren't moving above the moat.

"This is our chance to make it across." Slider says, now taking Jackie's hand. "While we have their helping hand, we're going to take it."

With the team in position, they begin crossing the moat on the stalling tiles. As they jump from tile to tile carefully, lava piranhas are leaping out of the moat, in hopes of latching onto one of the team mates. Jumping to the fifth tile, a piranha now latches on to Jackie's dress.

"There's a piranha on my dress!" Jackie panics. "Get it off! Get it off!"

Slider wields his sword and slays the piranha while taking a piece of Jackie's dress with it. The blood sucking fish has been knocked back into the lava.

"Let's hurry and make it the rest of the way before we get another surprise like that one." Slider says.

The team continues crossing the moat while avoiding the rest of piranhas along the way. Jumping onto the last tile, the team now leaps to the other side of the moat.

"Thank goodness we made it across." Matt says, wiping his forehead. "Being in a suit of armor like this and crossing a moat like that just doesn't mix. It's like a furnace in here and being over that moat didn't help things any."

"My dress." Jackie lightly whines, looking at the tear in her dress from the piranha. "That blood sucker ruined my perfectly good dress."

"Don't worry Jackie." Slider begins comforting her. "Your dress maybe a bit impaired, but at least you made it and are still with me."

Jackie's frown now changes to a smile.

"You're right Slider." Jackie replies. "With you as leader, I'll always be safe."

"That's one thing you can always be sure of Jackie." Slider says embracing Jackie in a hug.

"There's another thing we all can be sure of and that's more supplies." Matt says, taking a notice of a treasure chest. Slider and Jackie turn to their right and notice the chest as well.

The three now run to the chest with Matt opening it. With the chest open, they take notice of what is inside. There are more potions, weapons, and more snelfus coins. There are even small amounts of food in the chest, which is a small turkey drumstick and a corn on the cob.

"Hey, this is new." Matt says, removing the small turkey drumstick from the chest. "Food."

"No chest we've found previously had food in it." Slider adds in as he removes the corn on the cob. "I guess this is for us to keep up with our strength throughout the game."

"But there are only two articles of food in the chest and there are three of us." Jackie says. "There's no way we can make that little bit go around three ways."

Without a second thought, Slider hands Jackie his corn on the cob.

"Make sure you keep up your strength." Slider sweetly speaks to Jackie.

"That's so sweet Slider, but what about you?" Jackie asks. "You have to keep up your strength, you being leader and all."

"I'll be fine Jax." Slider replies with a warm smile. "You take it and build your strength. I'm sure there are more chests with more food in them throughout the game."

"Ok everyone, time to split up the supplies." Matt says as he begins going through the chest.

Slider begins going through the chest with Matt, leaving Jackie to watch them. With the boys going through the chest, a shining light across the room from them now catches Jackie's attention. Taking more notice of the light, Jackie focuses her full attention on it. With the corn on the cob in hand, Jackie leaves the guys' side and begins walking towards the light.

"Now Slider, you take the snelfus coins, I get the sword, and Jackie, you take the potions." Matt instructs.

"Why do you get the sword?" Slider argues. "I'm the leader, I should get the sword."

"I say I get the sword because I opened the chest." Matt argues back. "I carry the sword, protect the one lady who is with us and find my girlfriend. Me having the sword shouldn't really be an issue right now Slider."

"I say I get it because I am the leader!" Slider continues arguing. "The leader always gets the important weapons and I would be protecting the one lady that is with us because she's my girlfriend!"

"If you hadn't made yourself leader, I would still be the leader through this game!" Matt continues.

"If you were still leader, you would be down to one life right now if Inez hadn't stepped in!" Slider continues as well. "That would go for all of us for that matter if we continued following you!"

With the boys going back and forth with their arguing, neither of them has noticed Jackie's sudden absence. Jackie is continuing to focus on the light and is continuing to make her way towards it. Being in the area of the shining light, she begins looking around for the source.

"I wonder where that light is coming from." Jackie wonders to herself. "Maybe someone else is on this stage as well and could probably help us out."

Continuing to look around, a pair of rough looking hands now reach out and grab Jackie. One hand covers her mouth to prevent her from screaming with the other going around her waist to keep her from escaping. She is now pulled into the darkness. The corn on the cob she was holding is all that is left behind.

"I am not going to continue arguing with you over who gets that sword!" Matt snaps. "Why don't we ask Jackie, she'd be a fair judge."

"Ok fine and don't be surprised if she agrees with me!" Slider agrees, keeping eye contact with Matt. "Jackie, who do you think should get the sword?"

Not getting a response, both boys now turn to their left and notices Jackie is gone. Not seeing her there, they begin looking around for her.

"Jackie!" Slider calls out. He doesn't get a response.

"Jax!" Matt also calls out. He, too, doesn't get a response.

"You don't think?" Slider asks, now turning back to Matt.

"Man I hope not!" Matt replies. "We can't lose anyone else in this game! We've already lost Inez, we can't afford to lose Jackie too!"

"Ok calm down, let's not panic or think the worst." Slider says as he begins trying to calm his nerves. "Jackie wouldn't just wonder off and leave us."

"Of course she wouldn't." Matt agrees.

A video screen now appears in front of the guys with a blonde hair, blue eyed, tan skinned guy appearing on it. He deviously smiles at the sight of the boys.

"Hello boys." He greets. "Enjoying the game so far?"

"Who are you?" Slider asks.

"Who am I you ask?" He replies. "Why, I am this game's video master of course."

"How is that when this is Hacker's game." Matt replies.

"Hacker you say?" He replies. "Well, this isn't Hacker's game anymore, it's my game now and the name is King Adam, the Northern Frontier's former ruler. I won't get into that just yet, but let's do get into a very interesting subject such as something you two maybe looking for at the moment."

"And just what might that be?" Slider snaps. "You couldn't possibly know what we are looking for!"

"Oh no?" Adam says in a taunting tone. "I do believe you two are looking for these precious gems are you not?"

King Adam steps out of the way so the guys can see what he is talking about. Jackie and Inez now appear on the screen. They are back to back with their wrists tied together by wire along with their feet being tied together in front of them. The two girls are being hung over a huge drum filled with electric eels by a heavy crane chain. Above the girls are two hearts, indicating that they only have two lives left. Matt and Slider notice how frightened their girlfriends are as they look down at the electric eel drum below them.

"If you aren't looking for them then I guess I'll be keeping them for myself." King Adam says with a smirk. "They would make a nice addition to my castle if I do say so myself."

"Let our girlfriends go right now!" Matt demands.

"It's not that easy tin man." Adam replies. "There are certain conditions in which you two must meet first in order for your precious gems to be freed. You see, I felt that Hacker has made this game way too easy for you all, so I decided to make it a bit more challenging, not to mention more interesting."

"So you're behind all of it!" Slider growls.

"Guilty as charged." Adam replies in a condescending tone, now walking over to the girls. "But there's more. Seeing on how you two have made it this far with your girlfriends' help, you won't be that lucky a second time because I have them now and if you want them back, you're going to have to make it to the last stage, where you'll be face to face with me, King Adam the video game master. If you fail to make it to the final stage, your precious gems will remain in the game forever as my prisoners or I could make one of them my video game mistress. A king always needs a queen by his side. Will it be princess Jackie or Inez the warrior? I just can't decide."

"Touch either of them and you'll be very sorry!" Slider threatens.

"Such small idle threats." Adam lightly laughs. "Just think of it this way. I'll be keeping the girls as collateral so if you two do actually make it to the final stage, it'll be a fair exchange and you have my word."

Matt and Slider both release a fierce growl in unison. What they wouldn't do to reach through that screen and strangle Adam right now.

"Oh and one more thing." Adam continues. "You two now have four hours to get through the rest of the game or its game over forever!"

King Adam begins laughing manically as a timer set at four hours now appears over the guys. The entire stage around them transforms from the castle stage and to an underground chamber stage. The ground beneath them cracks apart, which separates Matt and Slider two feet apart from each other. Bubbling hot lava rushes to the surface of the crack, seeing to it the guys stay apart.

"Good luck boys." Adam wishes. "Just remember, if you want your precious gems back, you'll have to reach the final stage before your time is up. Bye for now."

The screen disappears with the timer going from 4:00 to 3:59.

Matt and Slider now turn to each other, hoping the other will come up with an idea as to what they are going to do.

* * *

Whoa what a twist! What are the guys going to do now? Will four hours be enough time for them to reach level 12 and save their girlfriends? Just who is King Adam and he use to rule the Northern Frontier before Hacker? Weird! Keep reading to find out how these questions are answered and more! Next chapter: King Adam's past life is revealed along with one very unexpected twist!

**Review Please!**


	6. King Adam's Maze

Chapter 6: King Adam's Maze

'The mysterious figure who has control over Hacker's game turns out to be King Adam, the former ruler of the Northern Frontier and he's kidnapped the girls. What going to happen now?'

With the game under King Adam's control, the guys now have 4 hours to get through the game and save their girlfriends. Will they be able to do it?

"4 hours?" Matt asks, now going into a panic. "We have 4 hours to get through the game? There's no way we'll be able to make it through the game in that short amount of time! It is very impossible to get from level 3 to 12 in 4 hours!"

"Matt, we have no choice if we ever want to see our girlfriends again and free them from King Adam." Slider replies. "If we don't think about it, we'll get through this game in no time and be face to face with Adam before we know it. But before we begin thinking of a rescue plan to save them, we first have to get out of our own mess."

"Yeah and what is your great plan to get us out of this oh great leader?" Matt asks sarcastically.

"Matt, I am not going to fight with you at a time like this." Slider replies. "All I need is a good 5 minutes to come up with something and we'll be out of here in no time flat."

"We don't have 5 minutes Slider!" Matt panics, now noticing his piece of the surface is beginning to sink into the lava. "You've got to come up with something and now!"

"If you stop nagging at me, I can think more clearer!" Slider snaps, also noticing his piece of the surface is starting to sink into the lava. "Which means I have to start thinking like now!"

"Well, any time before we become submerged would be nice!" Matt continues panicking. "I'm wearing a suit of armor! METAL! Metal and heat don't mix well together!"

Before Slider is able to reply, a video screen appears in front of the guys with Dr. Marbles and Digit appearing on it.

"Dr. Marbles, Digit!" Slider says in surprise. "Boy, are we glad to see you guys! Your timing couldn't be better!"

"Same here Slider." Digit replies. "Listen, the doc has found a way to take control of the game from here, completely overriding Hacker's control."

"I figured this much." Slider replies. "You guys have no idea just how much we needed those helping hands you gave us."

"There's more to this story, but I'll let the doc explain the rest." Digit says as he leaves the screen with Dr. Marbles being the only one the boys see.

"As Digit has explained, I've found a way to control Hacker's game from here and appear to be having immaculate luck with the controllers I have created." Dr. Marbles begins explaining. "Now that we have the control I was aiming for, me and Digit will be monitoring your every move the rest of the way through the game."

"That's great doc." Matt replies. "While you have our backs covered, we have to save our girlfriends from King Adam, this game's new video master. He's holding them hostage until we make it to the final stage of this game."

"I've devised a plan that will help you guys get to level 12 flawlessly and save Jackie and Inez." Dr. Marbles continues. "We've witness King Adam's broadcast and I will be working tirelessly around the clock to completely sever his ties with this game and get you all out of there."

"Can you do anything about the timer he has set for us?" Slider asks. "4 hours is a bit of a tight squeeze to get from this level to level 12."

"Unfortunately right now, I cannot, but as I work on severing Adam's ties with the game, I will find a way to stop that counter." Dr. Marbles replies. "But until then, me and Digit are watching your every move and will see to it that you guys make it through, get to level 12, and save the girls."

"Great, but is there a possibility that you guys can help us out of this mess we're in now?" Matt asks, continuing to notice that his surface his sinking faster and faster. "I'm wearing metal and being over this hot lava isn't helping at all!"

"You got it!" Dr. Marbles replies. "A one way ticket out of there coming right up!"

The screen now disappears with a dragon immediately appearing over head. Hearing the dragon's roaring, Matt and Slider look up and notice a brown dragon flying over head.

"Now is not a good time to deal with that thing!" Matt panics. "We have our own problems to worry about right now!"

"I don't think we have to worry about that dragon being our enemy." Slider says, gaining a smile. "That's our ride out of here sent by the doc and Digit."

With the guy's ground sinking faster and faster, the dragon now approaches them. With it being within range, Slider leaps onto the dragon's back, in just enough time as the surface he was standing on is now completely submerged in the lava. Being on the dragon's back, Slider offers a hand to Matt. Matt takes his hand and is pulled onto the dragon's back in just enough time for his surface is now submerged into the lava.

"That was a close one." Matt says, sighing in relief.

"Too close for comfort." Slider agrees. "Now hold on to your suit of armor Matty, we are out of here! Next stop, the gateway to level 4!"

The dragon roars as it begins flying through level 3 with Matt and Slider in tow and with the lava lake beneath them becoming an afterthought.

Level 12

King Adam has witnessed the boys getting out of yet another trap that he has set for them. From the looks of it, he doesn't appear to be upset, but more impressed at their courage and skills.

"Well, well, well." King Adam begins. "It seems I have given the little warriors far too little credit. They seem to be smarter than they look, but eventually, they're smarts and luck are going to run out, especially if I have anything to do with it."

"Just like Hacker, you will be defeated!" Inez spits. "You're no better or smarter than he is and our boyfriends will make it to here to rescue us!"

Hearing Inez's statement, Adam now turns to the girls with a grin.

"Have you two ever heard of the saying actions speak louder than words?" Adam begins. "That saying would apply to this situation as of now. You say that they will make it, but those are just words, but their actions will speak louder than your words alone. My marvelous changes to this game have and will continue to speak louder than any spoken word."

"Once hacker finds out that you took over his game, you're done for!" Jackie snaps.

"Hacker defeat me?" Adam replies with a light chuckle as he stands and walks over to the girls. "Not a second time around. He might have gotten the better of me the first time, but there won't be a second time because I have a secret weapon that will assure my successful triumph."

"Oh yeah?" Inez counters. "And what might that be?"

"I am not at liberty to speak on that at this time my dear." Adam calmly answers. "Like Hacker, you'll just have to see for yourself and trust me, it will be well worth the wait. Guards, get them down!"

The two cyclop guards do as they are told and remove Jackie and Inez from over the drum. With the two girls on solid ground, the guards remove the bonds on their feet, but leave the bonds on their hands in tack.

"You, escort Inez to the holding room." King Adam instructs. "But you, leave the princess with me."

Hearing Adam say that, Jackie can feel a knot form in her stomach, being unsure of what Adam might be thinking while she's there with him.

"Jackie, whatever you do, don't let him break you." Inez whispers to Jackie as she is now escorted to the room.

"Please princess, have a seat." Adam offers. "And might I add that you look very ravishing this day."

Waving his hand through the air, an arm chair now manifests next to his. Jackie does as he asks and takes a seat in the chair. Adam takes a seat in his chair and returns to monitoring the two remaining players.

"It's good to be king." Adam says as he watches the guys and the dragon they are on dodge obstacles. "Now princess tell me, this Slider, is the leader of the team now is he not?"

"I refuse to answer that question!" Jackie snaps. "I'm not telling you anything that will help you continue to shape this sick game!"

"No need to get angry princess." Adam replies. "I only asked one simple question. There was no harm in it was it?"

"Since you're the one who has the control over this game, you figure out the answer for yourself!" Jackie snaps as she turns her back to him.

Seeing Jackie's resistance, Adam lightly sighs.

"Refusing to answer the king is not a smart move princess." Adam says. "We will come back to that, but before we do, I first have to make a little call to an old adversary of mine."

Northern Frontier

Hacker, who has noticed the radical changes to his game, is less then pleased with what has been going on.

"MY GAME!" Hacker fumes. "MY BEAUTIFUL AND MARVELOUS GAME!"

"We didn't do it boss." Delete quickly speaks up.

"I know that you idiotic dunce bucket!" Hacker snaps. "My precious invention has been turned into something totally and utterly foul! It no longer has _The Hacker_'s trademark! Who would do such a thing?"

Having asked that question, only one person, well computer program, comes to mind.

"Motherboard!" Hacker hisses. "Of Course! I should have known this was all her doing! Her and that bubble brain Marbles! She would do anything to save those earth brats! Even if it means ruining my great invention to do so! She will not get away with this!"

Continuing with his rant, King Adam now appears on the television's screen with a wide grin on his face.

"Hello Hacker." Adam greets.

Hearing the voice, Hacker stalls his rant and turns to the television, spotting Adam.

"Who are you and how do you know my name?" Hacker asks in confusion.

"Come now Hacker." Adam continues. "You mean to tell me you don't remember the one who you destroyed and banished to Discardia for all eternity? Doesn't King Adam ring a bell?"

Hearing the name, Hacker begins thinking on it. After a minute, the name turns up zero results in his memory bank.

"Not at all." Hacker simply replies.

"Maybe this will jog your memory." King Adam. "Back many years ago, you arrived on the Northern Frontier, having been banished there and were determined to take over that cybersite at all costs, even if it means destroying everything in the process. I remember everything as if it were yesterday."

Flashback

_I was holding an emergency meeting to the entire cybersite that involved the current problems that were facing the site. The Northern Frontier was in dire trouble and everyone was very frantic._

"_If everyone would please calm down, we can answer every question that you have and address every problem that you want to report." King Adam announces. "I understand your concerns and it is my duty to make sure that all of you are heard out."_

"_The drinking water is extremely polluted!" One woman shouts. "What are we going to do about the water? Our kids are dying of thirst!"_

"_I'll have someone look into it, I promise." Adam replies to the woman. _

"_Our crops are dying and fast!" One man yells. "There's no food to feed any of us!"_

"_I will do my best to provide food for all of you." King Adam replies. "I am aware of the food shortage and am working with another site to see if they can help us out."_

"_What about healthcare?" One woman yells. "We are short the healthcare that our children desperately need!"_

"_I will handle that as soon as possible." Adam replies. "I am currently working with a site that will provide excellent healthcare for us all."_

_Everything on the Northern Frontier was looking very grim and dire as I was the only one who was able to take care of my people. So far, I had satisfied the crowd with the answers I provided for them. Everything looked very promising at the moment, that is, until YOU showed up on the site. _

The Grim Wreaker now lands behind the crowd, getting everyone's attention. The hatch opens with Hacker, Buzz and Delete stepping off the ship.

"_Motherboard banished me to this dump?!" Hacker spits as he looks around the site. "This site is a complete disaster, but it's no matter, it'll have the seal of 'The Hacker' in no time."_

"_It looks poor boss." Delete speaks. _

_The moment I saw you and your henchmen, I immediately knew you were bad news. _

King Adam now steps down from the stage and begins making his way through the crowd. Getting through the massive crowd, King Adam is now face to face with Hacker. Seeing the king, Hacker narrows his eyes at him.

"_And just who are you?" Hacker spits. _

"_I am King Adam." Adam introduces himself calmly and politely. "I am ruler over this Cybersite."_

"_Well not anymore because I'm taking over now!" Hacker growls. "Since Motherboard banished me to this dump, I might as well make it Hacker worthy."_

"_I am sorry, but you don't have that right." Adam replies. "This is my cybersite where I rule. There can't be two rulers."_

"_Well then, it looks as if one of us will be taking a hike." Hacker replies with a grin. "And when I say one of us, I mean you!"_

_From there, the struggle for the Northern Frontier was on. You were determined to get your way no matter what it took. The site was already in trouble from food, water and healthcare shortages, but you didn't care. The only thing you cared about was yourself. I couldn't let you bring down the site anymore, considering its already dying condition. After struggling to maintain the control I had over the site, a nasty war erupted between you and I that began destroying the site piece by piece. After the war ended, the site that was in dire need and was struggling to stay alive was nothing more than the baring wasteland that it is now. _

End Of Flashback

"My people were killed and the food, water, and healthcare shortages were an immediate afterthought and I, King Adam, joined my people in the land of the dead because you so badly wanted control over that site!" King Adam continues. "But by some miracle, I was brought back to life and inside YOUR video game. You might have gotten the better of me the first time, but I guarantee you that there will NOT be a second time as I am in control now. I have been altering this game to suit my needs and if I must say, I do love what I've done with it."

Having taken in everything Adam has said, the memories of the past is now flooding back to him. Hacker can feel his circuits burning with anger, with one in particular, in his neck, surfacing to his skin. Buzz and Delete take two steps back from Hacker, not knowing when the angry cyborg is going to explode.

"So if you want your control back, you're going to have to go through me to get it and I guarantee that it will be no cake walk!" Adam challenges. "Also, I would like for you to meet someone. She maybe my next video game mistress if all goes well. Hacker, meet Princess Jackie."

The screen now switches to Jackie, whom has a confused expression on her face. The circuit in Hacker's neck now bursts from the anger that is surging through him. The screen switches back to Adam.

"So are you up to the challenge Hacker?" Adam questions in a taunting tone. "Oh and if you haven't been paying attention to what has been going on, I have given the remaining players 4 hours to get through the rest of MY game. If they fail to reach the final stage, my stage, before their time is up, their girlfriends remain prisoners in my game forever and it will be game over for them forever. Well I must be going, I have a video game to monitor and continue to make my own. Tata for now."

The screen now switches back to the guys in level 3.

With the memories of the past playing back in his mind over and over, Hacker can feel himself overloading with anger. That video game was HIS creation and his alone! There was no way he was going to let Adam get away with it and if it is anyone who is going to get rid of those kids, it's going to be him!

"Delete, get the light transmitter gun." Hacker requests in a dangerous tone.

"Why boss?" Delete asks.

"Don't ask questions!" Hacker hisses, not making eye contact with the robot. "Just do it!"

Not wanting to push the cyborg's anger anymore, Delete does what he is told and grabs the gun.

"Transfer me into the game now." Hacker says. "Adam is not going to get away with destroying my beautiful creation!"

Having the gun in position, Delete pulls the trigger with the beam of light hitting Hacker, completely consuming him. Within a minute, Hacker is transferred into the game.

Dragon Gates

Matt and Slider are continuing to ride on the dragon that Dr. Marbles and Digit provided through level 3.

"How much further until we reach the gateway to level 4?" Matt asks.

"It shouldn't be too much longer." Slider answers.

Continuing with the dragon ride, Slider now spots the gateway to level 4 ahead of them.

"And there it is." Slider says, pointing to the doors.

The dragon now approaches the gateway and lands on the solid surface in front of the doors. Slider and Matt climb off the dragon and stands on the solid surface.

"You were such a big help to us." Slider says to the dragon as he pets it. "Yes you were, yes you were."

"Well I can officially say that not all dragons are bad." Matt speaks as he pets the dragon as well. "I now have a new found liking for them."

"Ok, now that we are here at level 4, we have to keep moving if we expect to save our girlfriends." Slider instructs. "Until Dr. Marbles can stop that timer, we still have that to worry about too."

"What about the dragon here?" Matt asks.

"He'll be coming with us." Slider replies. "He's a part of the team now."

"He's not the only one that will be joining the team!" A familiar voice to the boys now rings out.

Hearing the voice, the boys turn around and spot Hacker. They're jaws nearly hit the floor.

"Hello kiddies." Hacker greets with his signature grin. "Looks like we'll be teaming up together."

* * *

No way! Hacker is going to help the guys out in the game? Is this for real? Is this for his own interests or does he really want to help them? And will Adam make Jackie his video game mistress? What will happen to Inez in the mean time? Keep reading to find out what happens next! Next chapter: The guys have a new team mate and their plan to get through the game!

**Review Please!**


	7. New Teammate: Friend Or Foe?

Chapter 7: New Teammate: Friend Or Foe?

'Now that Hacker knows who's controlling his game, he plans to stop the plan altogether, which means teaming up with the remaining players in the game. How will this work out?'

Now knowing that King Adam has his hooks in the game, Hacker has entered the game to get his control back by teaming up with the guys to save his game and help them through the rest of it. Question is, how is this going to work out?

"Hello kiddies." Hacker greets the guys. "Looks like we're going to be teammates."

"Hacker?!" Matt and Slider ask in unison and disbelief.

"In the circuitry." Hacker replies in his usual condescending tone.

"No way Hacker!" Slider immediately protests. "There is no way we are going to team up with you! It's all because of YOU we are in this game!"

"You said it Slider!" Matt agrees. "There is no way we are going to let you be on our team! The minute we turn our backs to you, you're going to try to do away with us!"

"Our girlfriends are prisoners of King Adam and it's all because of you!" Slider continues. "Bottom line is, we are not teaming up with you! You've been trying to do us in for the longest! If we were to team up with you, that'll give you the advantage to knock us off any given time!"

"You might try to make us lose this game on purpose!" Matt continues as well. "Remember, if we make one false move, its game over forever?! Me and Slider will handle things, get to level 12 and save our girlfriends by ourselves! You're on your own!"

Having said their peace to Hacker, Matt and Slider begins walking away.

"Well, have it your way then." Hacker calmly replies. "But while you're trying to do this on your own, what if I told you that I know of a short cut that will get you to level 12 faster and without King Adam noticing?"

Hearing that, the guys stop dead in their tracks and quickly turn around to Hacker.

"What did you say?" Slider asks, his fierce glare unmoving.

"You didn't hear me?" Hacker asks, gaining a grin. "Then let me repeat myself. I said that I know of a short cut that will get you to level 12 quicker and unnoticed by King Adam. The quicker you reach level 12, the sooner you two can save the other earth brats. If you want that short cut, we are going to have to team up together. I can guarantee without it, it will be one grueling competition. I would know, I made this game. So what do you say?"

"I don't know." Matt says with hesitation. "You offering to help us just isn't settling right with me."

"Me neither." Slider agrees. "Something about that seems like you have an underlying plan of your own."

"Listen kiddies." Hacker begins, his tone changing to serious. "I don't want to be apart of the cybersquad anymore then you want to work with me, but I can't sit idly by and let my creation get marred even worse than it already has. You want to save your teammates and I want my game back, so in order for us to get what we all want, we're going to have to make this work. I especially want my revenge on that blood sucker for getting his hooks into my game. As much as we don't want to be on the same team, we are going to have to agree to get through this. So are you with me or not?"

"Give us a minute to think on it." Slider says.

Both boys now huddle up.

"Can we seriously trust Hacker to help us out?" Matt asks. "He's always been looking to do away with us for as long as we can remember. I don't know if I can trust him teaming up with us."

"He seems serious enough to want to help us, as odd as that is." Slider replies. "But if he really knows a short cut from here so we can reach level 12 sooner, then I say we…….give him a try."

"But what if tries to do away with us while we are trusting him to show us this short cut?" Matt asks. "He could be using this whole short cut deal just to make sure we trip up and loose the game on purpose."

Slider looks to Hacker, who in turn, waves at him. He now huddles back up with Matt.

"We'll just keep an eye on him and the moment he does pull a fast one, we make a break for it." Slider concludes. "Right now, we really don't have a choice but to take him at his word until we know otherwise."

"I sure hope we are doing the right thing." Matt says with a sigh.

"Me too." Slider agrees.

The boys now break and turn to Hacker.

"Ok Hacker, we're going to trust you." Matt says to the cyborg. "BUT under probationary standards only. The moment you pull a fast one, you're on your own to take care of King Adam. Me and Slider will go our way and save our girlfriends ourselves."

"You two have made the right decision." Hacker says, now walking up to them. "You won't be disappointed, I guarantee that."

"We'll be the judge of that." Slider counters.

"Now, where is this short cut?" Matt asks.

Hacker doesn't answer, but instead pulls out a small device with a blue button in the middle from his cape pocket. Pressing the button, a blue vortex now opens in front of them.

"I call it my convient, yet easily accessible pathway." Hacker says. "Now, because Adam is watching our every move, I will create a decoy that will show that we are going through level 4, but in reality, we are taking the short cut."

"That's actually….brilliant." Matt says.

"Hey, I don't call myself The Hacker for nothing." Hacker replies with a grin.

Pressing the button again, the digital broadcast of the game on King Adam's end switches to a screen of Matt, Slider and Hacker beginning their journey through level 4.

"The decoy has been created." Hacker informs them. "That will show that digital vampire that he's not the only one who can flip the script. Now, let's get moving team."

With that, Hacker, Matt and Slider now enter the vortex. With everyone inside, the vortex closes and winks out of existence.

Level 12

On level 12, in King Adam's Castle, he's continuing to monitor the guys and now Hacker, in the game. Continuing to monitor them and from what Adam sees, the guys and Hacker are making their way through level 4. When Hacker said they will go unnoticed by taking a short cut, he really meant it.

Noticing the team coming to a bridge, Adam sighs.

"I'm bored now." Adam announces, now turning to Jackie. He notices the bored expression on her face as well.

"I see that you are bored too Princess." Adam says as he gets Jackie's attention. "Why don't we give this watch a rest and have dinner. I would love it if you joined me."

"No thanks!" Jackie rejects. "The sight of you sickens me!"

Lightly chuckling at her response, Adam stands and makes his way behind his chair. Waving his hands in the air, a lengthy table with chairs complete with white lit candles, white table cloth and an elegant buffet, appears. The smell of the buffet now catches Jackie's nose, which perks her up.

"Are those Tofu burgers I smell?" Jackie asks, now getting to her feet.

"Why yes." King Adam answers. "I have to assume that is what quenches your appetite, yes?"

Continuing to take in the smell of the burgers, Jackie quickly makes her way to the table and takes a seat.

"I knew something about tonight's dinner would get your appetite going princess." Adam says as he takes a seat next to Jackie.

Having taken a seat himself, King Adam notices Jackie's insatiable appetite as he watches her load her plate down with food, as the Tofu burgers were the first on the list. Having enough food, Jackie takes a seat and begins digging in.

"You appear to have a healthy appetite." Adam says as he grabs a dinner roll. "I admire that in a woman, especially the woman I chose as my mistress."

"Mmmhhmm." Jackie replies, taking another bite into her tofu burger.

"You know Jackie, there are very many advantages to being my video game mistress." Adam begins. "As king, it can get pretty lonely, but that loneliness can easily cease when the right woman comes along."

Having said that, Adam now slips Jackie's free hand into his own. Jackie halts her eating and notices this.

"I don't doubt for a second that you're a great catch." Adam says in a whisper. "A catch any man would be foolish enough to let go of."

"Well Adam, I'm spoken for which means you're out of luck!" Jackie says as she snatches her hand away. "The only guy that I am a perfect catch for is one of the players in the game you're continuing to toy around with! Pick some other unlucky woman to be your mistress because it will never be me!"

Adam sighs as Jackie goes back to her meal.

* * *

In the holding room, Inez is pacing around and thinking as one of the guards' stand outside her door, seeing to it that she doesn't escape.

"I've got to get out of here and fast, but how?" Inez says a she continues pacing and thinking. "Big and ugly out there is seeing to it that I stay right where I am, but I can't do that. I have to contact Jackie so we both can make a break for it!"

Grabbing her SKWAK from her warrior outfit belt, she opens communication and begins trying to reach Jackie. After a minute of trying, Jackie's SKWAK pad message pops up on Inez's screen. It reads: You've reached Jackie! I'm not in at the moment! Please leave a message!"

"Great!" Inez says with frustration. "Adam must have confiscated her SKWAK, which will make this plan a bit harder to come up with. I have got to think of something and fast!"

Inez now gets into her thinking position and begins trying to come up with a good plan.

Control Central

Having helped Matt and Slider through level 3, Dr. Marbles has begun working on severing King Adam's ties from the game. On the main screen is the game's structure and configurations. The configurations currently show how many players there is, the names of the players, the trademark of the game, the number of levels, and who the creator of the game is. Currently, the game's trademark and creator is under King Adam's name.

"From the looks of things, Adam has cut off Hacker's communication from the game all together." Dr. Marbles observes. "His trademark nor his name appears anywhere."

"How's the cutting the ties loose going doc?" Digit asks, now entering the room, having come from the CC's garden.

"I'm still working on it Digit." Dr. Marbles answers, not making eye contact with the cybird. "I should have King Adam's ties cut from this game in no more than 1 minute."

Getting past the game's main password protected sectors, Dr. Marbles now enters the section of the creator of the game where King Adam has his trademark.

"This is where it all ends for you, your majesty!" Dr. Marbles firmly speaks.

Hitting select on the game controller, a dialog box now comes up and requests a password. Putting in what he thinks the password might be, red letters that spell ERROR appears on the screen. Trying what he thinks another password would be, the error message appears once more.

"He's really got this one section locked." Dr. Marbles says to himself. "I was able to get passed the other sectors no problem. No matter, I will crack the code and cut you off from this game all together Adam!"

"While you're working on this doc, how are we going to keep an eye on the kids?" Digit asks. "They still need our supervision until we get them out of the game."

"Going into split screen mode." Dr. Marbles speaks.

Hitting the CTRL and ALT buttons on the control panel's keyboard, the screen now splits into two where Dr. Marbles can continue working on chopping Adam's ties while he and Digit keep an eye on the guys in case they run into trouble in the game.

With the screen split in two, Digit now notices Matt and Slider with Hacker. Wait just a second, Hacker?!?

"Wait a minute, Hacker?" Digit asks in surprise. "What is Hacker doing in the game and with the guys at that?"

Dr. Marbles diverts his attention from the game's configurations and to the other side of the screen, now noticing what Digit is looking at.

"That is an excellent question." Dr. Marbles says, fixing his glasses. "Whatever Hacker is doing in the game, it can't be good. Keep an eye on them as I continue working on cutting Adam off from the game."

The cyborg doctor now diverts his attention back to the game's configurations. Trying another password, the error message appears once more along with a message that reads: Configurations have been locked! You do not have access to the game's controlled sectors!

The configurations disappear from the screen as the entire screen goes back into one whole screen.

"Adam must have found out that I've gotten into the game's controls." Dr. Marbles says. "I will make sure he loses control and get the team back in cyberspace! This is one game he won't win!"

With Digit continuing to watch the team with Hacker, Dr. Marbles begins working on severing Adam's ties once more.

Dragon Gates

On an icy and snowy platform, the vortex opens up with Hacker, Matt, and Slider exiting. The vortex now winks out of existence.

"Where are we?" Matt asks he and Slider begins looking around.

"This, my fellow team mates, is level 8." Hacker announces. "We were able to skip 4 stages thanks to my short cut. The faster we get to level 12 the quicker I can make this Adam's final resting place! How dare he take control of MY game! I am **The** Hacker! He has no idea who he is messing with!"

Matt and Slider exchange glances.

"Now, I know the easiest way through this stage while also avoiding the booby traps along the way." Hacker says to the guys. "Just stick closely by me."

"Who died and suddenly made him leader?" Matt whispers to Slider.

Slider just shrugs.

Having made it to level 8 thanks to Hacker's short cut, the cyborg is unaware that the level 4 decoy stage has come to an end…..

* * *

On level 12, Adam and Jackie are continuing to have dinner with only Jackie satisfying her hunger while Adam watches on. He appears to be very fascinated by her.

::Jackie is really beautiful.:: King Adam mentally says to himself, continuing to watch Jackie eat. ::She will look even more beautiful when I crown her my video game mistress. After that, I get to gaze at her beauty every minute of everyday.:::

"Your majesty, your immediate attention is required!" One of the guards calls out to him.

Hearing that, Adam's attention is quickly diverted to the guard.

"For my concentration to be broken so abruptly, this better be important!" Adam says, irritation evident in his tone. "I happen to have laid eyes upon a very beautiful work of art that I couldn't take my attention away from."

"Trust me, this is important your highness." The guard replies. "Take a look at the video stream."

Doing as the guard asked, Adam looks to the stream and notices Slider, Matt, and Hacker are in a different surrounding, different from the one he last saw them in. Seeing this brings a devious grin to his face.

"I see that Hacker and those brats cleverly made their way to level 8 and oh so fast." Adam calmly says. "Well, they might have been clever in that respect, but I'll always be one step ahead of them."

"What are you going to do now?" The guard questions.

"That my primitive friend you will soon find out." Adam answers, now turning to the guard. "Deploy plan 34.6A immediately."

Bowing to King Adam, the guard rushes off to do as he is told.

* * *

On level 8, Hacker, Matt and Slider have begun making their way through the level.

"You know, being in a suit of armor when it's hot is one thing, but being in it when it's freezing is just as bad!" Matt complains. "It feels like my entire body is frozen solid."

"Just hang in there man." Slider says to Matt. "Hopefully this is a short stage and we'll be in a warm environment soon."

"That's just like Slider to keep the team's spirit up." A familiar voice speaks from behind them.

Hacker, Matt, and Slider quickly stop dead in their track and twirl around to see Jackie and Inez smiling at them. Seeing them, the guys stare in awe, not believing what they are seeing. They blink twice to make sure they aren't imagining their girlfriends standing before them.

"You guys look as if you've seen a ghost." Inez speaks.

* * *

Ok, too freaky! What are Jackie and Inez doing there? Are the guys really seeing them or is this all part of King Adam's trick? And Hacker is helping out the guy selflessly? This is a first! What will happen next? That question will be answered in the next chapter of End Game! Next chapter: The guys find out the truth and King Adam puts the team through one rigorous test!

**Review Please!**


	8. Truth Or Scare?

Chapter 8: Truth or Scare?

'It appears that Jackie and Inez are back in the game. Are the guys and Hacker really seeing them? I mean REALLY?'

Having heard Jackie's voice, the guys turned around only to spot their girlfriends' smiling at them. The guys are in awe that the girls are back in the game or are they?

"You guys look as if you've seen a ghost." Inez speaks.

"Inez, is that really you?" Matt asks, a wide smile coming to his face.

"Jackie, tell me I am really seeing you." Slider says, a smile coming to his face as well.

"Of course you're really seeing us." Jackie replies. "We had to escape from King Adam and find you guys. We really missed you."

Hacker, who is watching on in silence, isn't convinced in the least bit that Jackie and Inez are really there and that King Adam would release the girls so easily. Something is definitely up.

"How did you two get away from King Adam?" Slider asks.

"And how did you two know we were going to be on this level?" Matt also asks.

"It was easy." Inez answers. "We hacked into his main frame and located you two. After that, we made a break for it."

"This is one of Adam's tricks!" Hacker speaks up. "I'm not convinced you two are really seeing them!"

"It can't be a trick." Slider denies, keeping his eyes locked on Jackie. "My Jackie is back and I couldn't be happier."

"I'm with you Slider." Matt agrees. "My warrior princess has returned."

"You guys might want to really think about this." Hacker tries reasoning with the two. "I know Adam and he wouldn't just let the girls go without having some type of strings attached."

Not hearing what Hacker has said, the guys begin running for their girlfriends with open arms. Now reaching them, the girls disappear with the guys closing their arms, only to wrap them around themselves and hit the icy floor.

"I told you two it was Adam's trick." Hacker sighs. "It's just like earth kids to not listen to reason."

Matt and Slider now get to their feet and begin looking around for their loves.

"Where's Inez?" Matt asks in confusion. "She was just here."

"The same place as Jackie, still with Adam." Slider replies with a sigh. "Hacker was right, it was all a trick and the girls were mere holograms. Adam knew just what to do to get our attention."

"I want my Inez." Matt lightly whines.

"If you want her, you'll have to get past me first." Adam's voice rings out.

Hacker, Matt, and Slider look ahead of them to see Adam in hologram form. Seeing him makes Hacker's temper rapidly rise.

"It was so amusing yet easy to make you two think your precious girlfriends were here." Adam says in a playful tone. "Are you gullible or what?"

"What's the matter Adam? Too scare to face us in person?" Hacker challenges. "Why don't you stop hiding and come out and face us!"

"So we meet again Hacker." Adam greets in a condescending tone. "It's good to know that the Northern Frontier still continues housing things no one wants. It's no wonder Motherboard banished you there."

"Where are our girlfriends Adam?!" Slider demands an answer.

"They are still with me of course." Adam answers calmly. "And speaking of your girlfriends, I'm afraid the rules have changed concerning their getting out of this game. Instead of reaching level 12 and facing me to earn their freedom, I've decided to keep them, especially Jackie and here are the highlights. I have chosen Jackie as my video game mistress while Inez will remain my game prisoner forever. I have chosen Jackie because something about her just says future ruler and not to mention how beautiful she will look when she is crowned as my mistress. As we speak, neither girl has any idea what is in store for them, but they will find out soon enough."

"Stay away from Jackie!" Slider shouts, his anger bursting forward. "If you touch her, you will be buried in this game! That's a promise!"

"That's easier said than done." Adam replies. "Jackie and I have so much in common, which is why I am so drawn to her. After all, we're both future rulers so I guess that might be why. Well, I must be going, wouldn't want to keep my mistress waiting. See you on level 12, that is, if you can make it that far."

With a grin, Adam's hologram now disappears with three large icicles breaking loose from the ceiling above the guys. Hacker spots the icicles coming down towards the guys at a rapid rate. Quickly lunging towards them, he knocks them out of the way just in time as the icicles now stab the ground where the guys were standing.

"Another minute and you two would have been goners." Hacker says as the three now get to their feet.

"Thanks a lot for the save." Slider says as he dusts himself off. "Wait a minute, did Hacker just save us?"

"Yes he did." Matt replies as he and Slider turn to hacker.

"Hey, this is new for me too, so cut me some slack." Hacker snorts. "What happened here, doesn't leave this stage, got it?"

"I am so going to put this down in my journal as a strange, but yet believable phenomenon." Matt cracks.

The ceiling above the three now begins falling in with large chunks of ice crashing to the ground around them.

"This whole place is falling apart!" Matt shouts. "We have to get out of here!"

The ground next to their feet now splits apart, which separates the ground they are on from the rest of the icy ground, revealing an icy lake below.

"How are we going to get out of here?" Slider asks, now avoiding a chunk of ice that fell from the ceiling. "We're likely to get trapped in this snowy ice pit!"

"Just follow me." Hacker says to them. "I know of a short cut through this stage that will get us to level 9's gates quicker."

Without a second thought, Matt and Slider now follow Hacker's lead to get out of the snowy ice pit while avoiding the ice that is falling from the collapsing ceiling.

Level 12

Adam is continuing to watch the players while also enjoying the trick he pulled on Matt and Slider. From what he can see, Slider, Hacker, and Matt are climbing an icy wall with Matt now being caught by Slider due to his grip slipping from the ice rock he was holding onto.

Jackie, who is now done with her meal, rises from the table and turns around, immediately spotting the video stream of the game. She takes notice of the guys and the surroundings they are in with Hacker. Wait, Hacker?!?

"Hacker?" Jackie asks in surprise. "What is Hacker doing with my Slider and Matt in the game?"

"That is a very interesting question isn't it Princess?" Adam asks, now turning to her. "It seems that foolish cyborg has entered the game to help out the remaining players and try to overthrow me so you and Inez can return to them. Well, that maybe his plan, but they must first pass the test I am putting them through. Ice just isn't for cooling off on a hot day anymore."

Hearing Adam say that, Jackie's temper begins rising as she balls her hands into fists.

"It would be oh so sad if your little boyfriend and his friends became part of level 8's frozen tundra now wouldn't it?" Adam asks with a grin, now walking up to Jackie. "That would be quite a pity don't you think Princess?"

"You SNAKE!" Jackie yells as she wings her right fist in Adam's direction. Just before her fist hits him in the jaw, he swiftly catches it.

"I maybe a snake to you, but that isn't the only title I hold." Adam calmly replies. "I also hold the title of your king. I've chosen you to be my mistress Princess Jackie and together we will rule this digital land together."

"You will NEVER be my king!" Jackie hisses as she snatches her fists from Adam's grip. "The only thing you'll ever be to me is a low life snake and scum of the cyber world and I wouldn't rule by you if my life depended on it!"

"Awe, that is so sweet." Adam teases. "You've already got a pet name for me. You're the best sweetheart."

"I am warning you, you better not harm Slider!" Jackie threatens. "That goes for Matt and strangely, Hacker as well!"

"I'm afraid you have no say in any of this Princess." Adam says. "The only thing you have to worry about now is getting ready for your coronation."

"Coronation?" Jackie asks in confusion. "What coronation?"

Adam doesn't answer, but instead snaps his fingers. The guard now approaches the two.

"You called your majesty?" The guard asks as he bows to Adam.

"Please take the princess to my chambers." Adam instructs. "She is to get ready and be prepared for her coronation that will be taking place very soon."

"Yes, your highness." The guard says.

"I do have say in that and I say no way!" Jackie protests.

Her protests go unheard as the guard now grabs Jackie's right arm and begins dragging her out of the room. With the guard taking Jackie to Adam's chambers, Adam takes seat back in his chair.

"I'll have this entire game under my ruling in no time." Adam says. "After I eliminate the remaining players, not only will I finally be free of hacker, but all of Cyberspace will mine for the taking with nothing standing in my way."

Just then, the security alert suddenly sounds.

"Warning! Warning! Hacking attempt in sector 4!" The system announces.

The screen suddenly switches from the game and to Control Central with the main focus being Dr. Marbles and Digit. Adam can see that Dr. Marbles and Digit are looking at the configurations of the game on Motherboard's screen.

"Before I start making out my plans for ruling Cyberspace, I first have to exterminate one very busy mouse!" Adam says with a low growl.

Control Central

Dr. Marbles has made his way back into the game's configurations, being in the trademark sector once more.

"Adam thought he locked me out for good." Dr. Marbles says. "He obviously has no idea whom he is dealing with! It looks as if I'll have the last laugh!"

Hitting the select button on the game controller, the password prompt appears. Just as he is about to enter what he thinks the password is, the screen now switches to King Adam.

"So you're the very busy mouse that's been interfering with how I am running this game and not to mention hacking your way in to try to override my control!" King Adam sneers.

"Very good observation." Dr. Marbles replies sarcastically. "And here I thought you were too wrapped up in yourself to take notice!"

"I don't particularly care for anyone interfering in my plans, so prepare to be exterminated!" King Adam threatens. "Your hacking days are over!"

"I'm afraid you're the one who is going to be exterminated!" Dr. Marbles challenges back. "Once I override this sector, your reign of terror will be over!"

"On the contrary, it would be real hard to do that if you've lost control." King Adam replies.

"What are you yapping on about?" Digit steps up. "We're still linked into the game, which means we have as much control as you if not more."

"Not for long." Adam counters. "Before I eliminate the ties you have to MY game, I want to first give you a preview of what is to come when I am to become the new ruler of cyberspace."

The screen now switches to Jackie in Adam's chambers. She is no longer wearing her medieval princess dress, but is instead wearing a long flowing purple gown in which only royalty wears and her tiara has been replaced with a full gold and diamond crown. The guard that escorted her to the chambers is placing the matching shoes on her feet. Jackie looks to be very miserable.

The screen now switches back to Adam with a wide grin.

"Incase you're wondering why I showed you that preview in particular is because I wanted you to see who will be ruling beside me as my mistress." Adam says. "That is the only preview that either of you will see until I take my place at the top. Now I bid you all, good bye."

Adam's image now disappears from the screen, which also makes the game's configuration's screen disappear as well. Motherboard now reappears on the screen.

"Doctor, the link to the game has been lost." Motherboard announces. "I can't recover it."

"Great!" Dr. Marbles says with frustration. "Now what are we going to do? We can't just let the team remain in the game with no way of helping them through it."

"Buzz and Delete." Digit speaks up.

"Buzz and Delete?" Motherboard and Dr. Marbles ask in unison.

"Yep, Buzz and Delete." Digit repeats. "Think about it, who usually does his dirty work for him?"

"Buzz and Delete." Motherboard answers. "But what would those two have to do with this?"

"The role they play in all of this is Hacker has the main control over the game because this is his creation." Digit explains. "While Adam has cut our ties to the game on this end, Buzz and Delete has the original control on the Northern Frontier, which is pretty much still open. All we have to do is go to the Northern Frontier and take over from there. With Hacker in the game, they are lost without him pushing them around."

"But Buzz and Delete will never allow it." Dr. Marbles replies.

"Trust me, they'll be very easy to convince." Digit assures. "After working for Hacker, I've learned a thing or two to make those two do pretty much whatever I want under the proper convincing."

"Are you for certain Digit?" Motherboard asks.

"Absolutely positive." Digit replies. "Doc, fire up the coupe and meet me on the Northern Frontier in 5 minutes."

With that said, Digit now journeys out into the emerald glow that is cyberspace and Dr. Marbles begins making his way to the coupe.

* * *

Digit and Dr. Marbles now arrive at the Northern Frontier, at the Grim Wreaker's garage. Jumping out of the coupe, Dr. Marbles meets up with Digit as the two now enter the garage.

"Buzz! Delete! We need your help!" Digit shouts, now getting the two robots' attention. "We need the master game controller!"

"There is no way we are helping you Digit!" Delete snaps. "You betrayed Hacker and turned your back on us!"

"We don't help traitors!" Buzz adds in. "You want the master controller, you can forget about it!"

"I had my own good reasons for what I did, but this goes way beyond the past." Digit tries to reason. "If you haven't noticed, your boss is in a game that he no longer controls but instead is being ran by a mad man named King Adam."

"We are aware of what's going on Digit!" Buzz snaps. "But we don't need your help!"

"Listen up you two!" Digit begins, his temper taking over. "There is no way I am going to sit idly by and watch as that mad man runs this game into the ground, especially with the kids and your boss in there! So you can make a choice right now. Either you hand me that master controller and let me take control of the situation or you can go the rest of your lives wishing you would have listened to me in the first place! By then it will too late! I know we aren't exactly the best of acquaintances, but for the time being, we're going to have to be! We can go back to hating each other after all of this is over, but until then, we're going to have to make this work. So the choice is yours!"

Buzz and Delete now turn to each other, hoping the other has an answer. Never seeing Digit's temper before today, they have no idea how to respond.

"Well?" Digit demands.

With no words spoken, Delete now hands Digit the master controller as he and Buzz move out of the way.

"I knew you two would make the right choice." Digit says as his expression softens and he grips the pad. "Now that we're back in control, you guys will be out of there in no time! The Didge is here to save the day!"

* * *

Way to go Digit! Now that Dr. Marbles and Digit are back in control, will they be able to get the kids out of the game before Adam severs Hacker's ties? How soon will Jackie's coronation take place? And has Inez come up with a plan to escape from King Adam? Will there be any point in it once she finds out what's in store for her and Jackie? Those questions will be answered in the next chapter of End Game! Next chapter: Things get even more intense and Adam will make his announcement to Cyberspace about his intended plans!

**Review Please!**


	9. A New Order Arises!

Chapter 9: A New Order Arises!

"Having been locked out from the game at CC, Digit and Dr. Marbles have teamed up with Buzz and Delete to save the kids. How well will this work out?'

Hacker, Matt, and Slider are continuing to make their way through level 8 as they continue climbing the ice wall. Climbing up a few more blocks, they now reach the top with Slider and Matt collapsing in a heap with Hacker stretching out his arms. Turning to the guys, he notices how exhausted they are and chuckles a bit.

"Come on, the climb up here wasn't that bad." Hacker comments. "It was like a brisk walk in the park."

"That's easy for you to say." Matt replies through his heavy panting. "You made this game."

"That climb was murder." Slider whines. "My whole body feels like it's on fire."

"Well, grab some ice around you and cool yourself off." Hacker replies. "We have to keep moving. Incase along the way you two forgot, you have a timer to race against and time isn't exactly on your side."

"I forgot all about that timer." Slider says, now getting to his feet. "How much time do we have left?"

Hacker and Matt now look above them and notice the timer reads: 2:51.

"2 hours and 51 minutes with 1 hour and 49 minutes having already elapsed." Hacker answers.

"We're running out of time!" Matt begins panicking. "We're only on level 8! We have 4 more stages to go through before we reach level 12! 2 hours and 51 minutes isn't enough time to make it from here to level 12!"

"2 hours and 47 minutes now." Hacker adds in.

"Ok, you're so not helping matters right now!" Matt continues panicking. "We need to think of a plan and get out of here! I want to see Inez again!"

Slider, who can't take anymore of Matt's panicking, now grabs the red head by the shoulders.

"Matt, calm down!" Slider says firmly as he shakes the boy. "Your panicking isn't helping matters any nor will it help us get to level 12 faster! If you can stop panicking for like 5 minutes, we can clearly think our way out of this! I want to see Jackie again too, but if you continue panicking, time will run out for sure. Now chill!"

Matt nods as he begins calming down with Slider releasing him.

"Will you be ok?" Slider asks calmly.

"I'll be fine." Matt replies with a nod.

"Now that the meltdowns are out of the way, let's get to what's important." Hacker speaks up. "From here, we have to cross an icy bridge and climb one more wall. After that, we'll be home free to the gates to level 9."

"We have to climb.." Matt begins.

"Another wall?" Slider finishes Matt's thought.

"Hey, when I made this game, I didn't think I'd be your tour guide." Hacker replies. "This was for you all to do, but since I have to get my game back under my control from that digital vampire King Adam and you two want to save the other two earth brats, then I guess we're all in this together."

With that, Matt and Slider now lean against each other as they fall to the ground in a heap. The thought of climbing another wall has exhausted the boys.

A window now appears in front of the three with Digit, Buzz, Delete, and Dr. Marbles appearing on it. Digit can mainly be seen with Dr. Marbles, Buzz and Delete standing in the background.

"Team, are you there?" Digit calls out, now getting their attention.

"We're here Digit." Slider replies as he and Matt now get to their feet.

"Digit, you're a sight for sore eyes." Matt says, overflowing with happiness.

"Diddo Matty." Digit replies. "Listen guys, I have some real bad news. King Adam has severed the doc's ties to the game form Control Central and completely wiped the video link from Motherboard's memory, so we had to charter here to the Northern Frontier as this is our only means to stay in contact with you from this point on."

"No way!" Slider replies.

"It gets worse." Digit continues. "King Adam made an announcement that he chose Jackie as his game mistress, which means that Inez will be getting short end of the stick if you know what I mean."

"We know, he told us as well." Matt says in a low voice as he balls his hands into fists.

"From here, me and the doc will be watching your every move and do what we can to help you out." Digit says. "The doc is going to try severing Adam's ties to the game from here since this is the game's point of origination. Hopefully he makes it into the controls and cuts him off for good."

"Let's hope so." Slider replies.

"Digit, where are Buzz and Delete?" Hacker now asks the cybird.

"Right here." Digit answers the cyborg.

Digit disappears from the screen with Buzz and Delete appearing on it.

"Yes boss?" Delete asks.

"Buzz, Delete, I want you two to help Digit and Dr. Marbles any way you can." Hacker commands. "Assist them with no questions asked. You got that?"

"Sure, whatever you say boss." Buzz says with him and Delete nodding in agreement.

Both robots disappear from the screen with Digit reappearing.

"With me and the doc having this outlet to keep an eye on you guys, just keeping moving forward." Digit instructs. "In the mean time, the doc will continue working on a way to severe Adam's ties to the game and get you guys out of there."

"You're the greatest Didge." Matt replies.

"Hey, they don't call me Digit LeBoid for nothing." Digit replies with a grin. "Don't worry, you guys are in good hands. Guaranteed."

The window now disappears.

"Digit will have Buzz and Delete assisting him, but for now, we better keep moving." Hacker says to the guys. "Level 9's gates aren't far from us. Just follow me."

With that, the boys and Hacker continue making their way to the gates of level 9, which means climbing that last and final wall just to get there.

Level 12

Adam is currently getting ready, with the help of one of his guards, to make his announce to all of Cyberspace about his intended plans. Standing in front of his full body mirror, he is looking himself over and is quite pleased with how he looks.

"I can't wait to become the next ruler of Cyberspace with my mistress." Adam says as the guard combs through his hair. "Yes, there will be a lot of changes and those changes will be in favor of yours truly. There will be no better ruler then I."

"What about Motherboard?" The guard asks.

"Didn't you just hear me you overgrown lug nut?" Adam replies, irritation evident in his voice. "I said there will be no better ruler then I! Listen to the 'I' in that sentence! Just let me do all the thinking while you just listen since clearly your intelligence isn't superior to mine."

Hearing the irritation in Adam's voice, the guard keeps silent as he continues helping Adam get ready to make his announcement. Taking the comb through Adam's hair once more, the guard now places his crown on. With Adam all put together, he looks himself over in the mirror once more and is very pleased at the sight.

"Very good." King Adam says in a pleasing tone. "You did an excellent job. Now bring my mistress before me. I am anxious to see how breath taking she looks. After all, my mistress is a reflection of me."

"Yes your highness." The guard says with a bow.

The guard now hurries off to retrieve Jackie as Adam turns back to the mirror.

"There can't be anyone in all of cyberspace who can compare to my wits, charm, and ever so handsome appearance." King Adam says, continuing to admire himself in the mirror. "I will make an excellent ruler."

Continuing to admire himself in the mirror, Adam now spots Jackie in the mirror standing behind him. Turning around, a wide smile finds its way onto his face.

"Jackie, you look absolutely beautiful." Adam compliments as he walks up to her. "No words can describe just how breath taking you look."

Jackie doesn't reply as Adam takes her hands into his own.

"I knew I made the right choice when I chose you as my mistress Princess Jackie." Adam continues. "When I make my announcement to all of Cyberspace about my intentions to rule, I want you there by my side. Envy will be all around us, but it's something you'll become accustomed to. Guards, bring out the prisoner! I want her in on this announcement as well."

The guard that is standing outside of the holding room Inez is in now opens the door.

"King Adam requests your presence immediately." The guard speaks as he signals for Inez to leave the room.

Unsure of what is going on, Inez leaves the room as she is escorted to the main area where Jackie and Adam are. Now being in the main area, Inez spots Adam and Jackie.

"You requested my presence your highness?" Inez asks with a fake smile, doing her best to mask her anger.

"You are correct." Adam replies. "There is an announcement that I will be making to all of cyberspace in less than 1 minute and I want you to be a part of it, me and my mistress want you to be a part of it."

Jackie separates from Adam and runs to Inez, now embracing her in a hug. Inez returns the hug.

"Inez, I am so happy to see you!" Jackie says, now loosening her embrace.

"Same to you Jackie!" Inez replies, her embrace loosening as well.

Inez now notices what Jackie has on and her overall appearance.

"Wow Jackie, you look great." Inez compliments her. "I especially love the dress. I know you are wearing the matching shoes."

Jackie gives Inez a strange look, wondering why she is giving her a compliment at a time like this. Noticing the look, Inez quickly begins thinking of something else to say that will change her previous compliment.

"Wow Jackie, you look terrible." Inez says, completely taking back her compliment. "And I know the shoes to this dress are equally as bad."

Jackie gives Inez another look, this one asking why she is now ripping on her look.

"Ok, would now be a good time to just say nothing?" Inez questions.

"Now we're on the same page." Jackie says in agreement.

"Ok ladies, it's time to get into position as it is time for me to make my announcement." King Adam announces. "Jackie, of course, you're to be next to me and Inez, I want you to stand next to my mistress."

Adam now takes a seat in his chair with Jackie taking a seat in her chair next to him. Inez stands next to Jackie's chair as instructed with the second guard standing behind her. The first guard now focuses the video stream on Adam, Jackie and Inez and presses the live button. With the video stream focused on the three and the live button pressed, the live broadcast from level 12 is on everywhere in cyberspace. Whoever is linked into cyberspace at the moment is surely tuned into to what Adam is just moments away from announcing. That would include the Northern Frontier and of course, Hacker's video game.

"You're on your majesty." The guard informs him.

"Thank you." Adam nods. "Greetings fellow citizens of Cyberspace. This is your new ruler, King Adam speaking. As I'm sure none of you are aware, the reign of the villainous Hacker has come to an end as a new order has risen. That new order would be I, King Adam and my lovely mistress Princess Jackie. We will be bringing a new order to all of Cyberspace and making some much needed changes that are long overdue. With Hacker out of the way, you all will now answer to me, King Adam! Defiance as well as intolerance will not be allowed! Obedience is not an option as it is an absolute must! My reign as your new ruler has begun and praising me as your king is to begin, effective immediately! My mistress and I look very much forward to being served by all of you soon. Now I bid you all good-bye."

The guard now presses the live button, which switches off the video stream of Adam.

"That was excellent your highness." The guard praises. "Your absolute best speech yet."

"Thank you, thank you very much." Adam replies as he takes in the compliments.

"I refuse to be a part of any twisted plan you have and you will NEVER be the ruler of cyberspace!" Jackie snaps as she stands. "If hacker couldn't achieve it, then NEITHER will you!"

"You said it Jax." Inez says in agreement.

"Not only are you beautiful, you're also very amusing." King Adam replies as he gets to his feet and faces Jackie. "You see, there is a big difference between me and Hacker, one which will explain why I am achieving the goal that he worked so long and hard for."

"Oh, and what might that be?" Jackie asks as she crosses her arms across her chest and narrows her eyes at Adam.

"The difference is, when I see something I want, I take it." Adam explains. "I don't plan and I don't plot, I simply take it. I took control of Hacker's game effortlessly, I changed the game to my liking effortlessly, and I won your heart without even breaking a sweat. I got everything I wanted without making an effort to get it because I was simply able to just take them. I would say that counts as a big difference between me and Hacker. Don't you agree?"

"No and there is just one thing wrong with your logic _your highness_!" Jackie scowls. "You didn't just take my heart because it belongs to only one guy and that's my love, Slider! My heart will never belong to you!"

"On the contrary princess, your words mean nothing." Adam replies. "With me being the new ruler of cyberspace and your little friends along with Hacker being stuck inside that game, the only one who has say in anything is me. Your job, however, is to make me look how I look every day, magnificent."

Jackie releases a fierce growl.

"Oh and before I forget, Inez is now your hand maiden Princess." Adam says. "Anything you want, she is to get for you, no questions asked."

"WHAT??"Inez asks in disbelief.

"Inez is my what now?" Jackie follows up, also in disbelief.

"That is my first order of business as ruler." Adam says. "Guards, escort my mistress and her maiden to my chambers and stand by for further instructions."

Bowing to Adam, the guards do as they are told as they begin escorting Inez and Jackie out of the room. Taking a seat back in his chair, Adam turns to the live video feed of the game and grins.

"A new order has definitely risen and as my second order of business, I'm going to eliminate Hacker and the remaining players once and for all." Adam says to himself. "Digital Doom is now the name of their game and me coming out victorious is how it will all end."

Adam begins chuckling, which soon turns into full blown maniacal laughter that is echoing through the castle's room.

The Northern Frontier

Buzz, Delete, Digit and Dr. Marbles have all witnessed King Adam's announcement, which caused an eerie silence to fall on the room. Between the 4, no one knows what to say. Buzz and Delete are stumped, Dr. Marbles is lost for words and Digit looks to be very aggravated by the announcement.

The cybird's aggravation now turns into full blown anger as his temper begins rising. The controller that he was holding now falls out of his wing and to the floor. The sound of the pad hitting the ground gets everyone's attention as their focus now falls on Digit. Digit keeps his focus on the television, to the screen of Matt, Slider, and Hacker on level 8.

"Digit, aren't you going to continue playing?" Dr. Marbles asks. "The team needs our help."

"I know, but there is nothing I can do from here." Digit quietly replies, not making eye contact with the doc.

"What do you mean?" Dr. Marbles asks in confusion. "We have the control we need from here and we have what we need to keep an eye on the team."

"If King Adam wants control over cyberspace, he's going to have to go through me just to get it!" Digit speaks, his tone a bit higher this time. "Delete, transfer me into the game now!"

"The boss says to help you and Dr. Marbles anyway we can." Delete replies. "We're going to help you guys get the boss and the earth kids out of the game. We can't help you if you're in the game."

"You will be helping me in more ways than one, trust me." Digit says as he turns to Delete, his expression very serious. "Now transfer me into the game!"

Doing what he is told, Delete now grabs the light transmitter gun and aims it at Digit. Pulling the trigger, the beam of light now hits Digit as he is engulfed by the light. His entire form changes to the 01010 binary code. With his entire form changed to the binary code, he is now transferred into the game.

"Now what do we do?" Buzz asks, turning to Dr. Marbles.

"The only thing we can do and that's wait patiently and hope for the best." Dr. Marbles answers. "While Digit is assisting the team in the game, you two are going to help me severe Adam's ties completely. We need to get everyone out of that game before Adam decides to make any further changes."

Buzz and Delete nod in agreement as Dr. Marbles now grabs the controller that Digit was holding and goes to work on getting back into the game's configurations, this time from Hacker's main frame.

* * *

Whoa! Didn't see that coming did you folks? With Digit in the game, will he help the team make it to level 12 faster? Will Dr. Marbles successfully make it into the game's configurations and settings through Hacker's main frame and what exactly is Adam's 'Digital Doom' plan? And will Jackie allow Inez to be her hand maiden? These questions answered and more in the next chapter of End Game! Next week's chapter: Digit assists the team and Adam's Digital Doom plan is revealed as things get even more out of control!

**Review Please!**


	10. Digital Doom!

Chapter 10: Digital Doom!

'With Digit now in the game, does the team have a fighting chance to reach level 12 before the timer hits zero?'

King Adam's announcement to rule cyberspace has driven Digit over the edge. Just how will his joining the team benefit the players?

"This is unbelievable!" Slider begins fuming. "While that scum has plans for my girlfriend, there is nothing I can do to stop him because I am stuck here in this game!"

"Don't worry, we'll come up with something Slider." Matt says with comfort to Slider. "We will get out of here and save our girlfriends."

"Listen to the kid, he makes a lot of sense!" Digit's voice now rings out from behind the team.

Hearing the cybird's voice now gets the team's attention as they turn around and spot Digit.

"Digit?" Hacker, Matt, and Slider says in surprise.

"In the circuitry." Digit says replies, now approaching the group. "No autographs please."

"I thought you were helping Dr. Marbles outside the game." Hacker says.

"I was in the start, but I knew I could do a lot more if I came to help you guys out personally." Digit replies. "Besides, Dr. Marbles has Buzz and Delete assisting him in trying to cut Adam off from the game. So while he's doing that, I'll be helping you guys get to level 12, kick some royal butt and then save the girls."

"I thought I'd never say this in my life time, but I'm glad I invented you Digit." Hacker says, true sincerity shining through in his tone.

"Well, don't thank me just yet as we still have a mission to complete." Digit replies. "Level 9 is straight ahead, let's get going."

Having already climbed the final wall in the stage before Digit's arrival, the team and Digit now cross the icy bridge and arrives at level 9's doors. Without hesitation, they now enter level 9 and upon entering, notice the type of stage it is. Level 9 is a prehistoric stage, it closely resembles the earth millions of years ago before it became inhabited with animals and people. Matt, Slider, and Digit look around with mouths wide open and their eyes nearly bugging from their sockets.

"When Hacker said the game was called Dragon Gates, he wasn't kidding." Slider comments, continuing to look around.

"Hacker, for you to come up with a game like this and to think up stages like this, you must have had a lot of time on your hands." Matt comments.

"Well, when you're a born genius like me, you want to put your all into your work." Hacker gloats. "And as you can see, my brains as well as my charm were well placed in this game."

"Um yeah, whatever you say." Slider replies to Hacker's gloating.

Continuing to look around the stage, the Radopolis skater now spots a treasure chest.

"Hey, a treasure chest!" Slider points out, getting everyone's attention.

"I call first dibs!" Matt yells with him and everyone now making a mad dash for the chest.

The team now reaches the chest with Digit being the first to open it. With the chest open, everyone notices what is in the chest. There are 3 potions of gold, red, and blue color, 4 gold snelfus coins, and a dagger. The gold potion is a transformation potion, the blue is an ice potion and the red is a fire potion.

"What is all of this?" Digit questions, now removing the gold potion from the chest. "Are these supposed to be energy drinks or something? This one reads transformation which I'm assuming transforms you from tired to energetic?"

"They are potions Digde." Matt answers the cybird, lightly laughing at the bird's assumption. "They are to help us as we go through the game. The gold one is for transformation, the blue is for ice and the red is fire."

"I have to hand it to you Hacker, you're good." Digit says. "Even though you created this game for revenge, you at least give the players something to look forward to."

A wide grin finds its way onto Hacker's face from Digit's compliment.

"Ok, you all know the drill." Matt says. "We distribute the items among ourselves so when the time comes we need them, we'll know who has them. Slider, you get the potions, I get the coins, and Hacker, you get the dagger."

Everyone nods in agreement as they begin emptying the chest. Continuing to go though the chest, an ear piercing screech now rips the air. Hearing the screeching, everyone looks up to see a hoard of mutant Pterodactyls heading right for them.

"Great! Just what we needed!" Slider fumes. "We just made it to this stage and we're already being attacked!"

"Well, if it's a fight they want, it's a fight they'll get!" Matt says with determination as he wields his sword. "Like Inez says, when the going gets tough, the tough fights back!"

"Make that times two." Slider agrees, now wielding his sword as well.

"Stand down you two, I'll handle this." Digit speaks up. "Slider, hand me the transformation potion."

"The Transformation potion?" Slider asks, now facing the cybird. "Digit, that potion hasn't been properly tested. It could be dangerous if you use it without knowing how it will affect you."

"Well then, consider me the first experiment." Digit replies, his tone very serious. "Now hand it over!"

Without a word of protest, Slider now hands Digit the transformation potion. Uncorking the top of the vial, Digit consumes the entire potion. Dropping the empty vial to the ground, a bright gold light now consumes Digit. The light becomes very blinding as everyone shields their eyes from it. The light that consumed Digit now fades, revealing a very changed Digit. The cybird has been transformed into a huge and powerful blue falcon with powerful wings, very sharp feet claws, and a razor sharp beak. His beak is something to watch out for as it is sharp enough to tear through the toughest material.

Everyone blinks twice just to make sure they aren't imagining what they are seeing.

"Is that…" Matt begins, his words becoming caught in his throat.

"Digit?" Slider finishes Matt's thought.

"Of course it's me." Digit replies, his voice deep due to the transformation. "It seems the only side effect those potions have are enhancing what's already well put together."

"Awesome!" Matt cheers.

The Pterodactyls are continuing to make their way towards the team as they're screeching rips through the air once more. Digit turns to the mutant birds and narrows his sharp eyes at them. Grounding his sharp claws into the ground, Digit raises his wings into the air as he begins flapping them. The wind created by his wings is a powerful one, which now impacts the mutant hoard, instantly wiping them out.

"Way to go Digit!" Slider cheers. "You took them out in one fellow swoop!"

"It was no sweat." Digit says as he turns to the team. "So far, the coast is clear, which means it's time for us to make our exit. Climb on."

Everyone piles onto Digit's back with Matt being first, Slider being second and Hacker being last. Loosening his claws from the ground, Digit now takes flight.

"Our next stop, the gates to Level 10!" Digit says. "Hold on tight everyone because we are out of here!"

With one strong flap of his wings, Digit's flight speed increases as everyone is now on their way to the gates of the third to last level of the game.

Level 12

Having been escorted to Adam's chambers, Jackie and Inez have made themselves comfortable. Well, only Jackie has made herself comfortable as being held captive has unsettled Inez to the point of pacing. If it's one thing that Inez hates more and that's staying in one spot for too long.

Jackie has planted herself on the bed as she continues picking at the skirt of her dress while Inez is pacing back and forth in front of Jackie. Taking her attention away from her skirt, Jackie looks up to the pacing Inez.

"So how are you supposed to assist me again and with what?" Jackie asks. "What exactly do hand maidens do?"

"They assist the person they have been assigned to." Inez answers, continuing to pace. "They are personal servants or maids and according to Adam, I am your personal servant. I get you whatever you want with no questions asked."

"Oh no, there is no way I am treating my best friend that way!" Jackie protests. "The only thing I want you to assist me with is continuing to be my best friend."

"That's good to know." Inez replies, a small smile forming on her face as she continues pacing. "There has got to be a way to get out of here. Who knows how much more of the game Adam warped to his liking and no telling what is happening to our guys."

"And Hacker." Jackie adds in.

Hearing Jackie say that causes Inez to stop in her tracks and turn to her.

"Did you say Hacker?" Inez asks, making sure she heard Jackie clearly.

"Yep." Jackie answers with a nod. "Hacker has gotten into the game with the guys and is surprisingly helping them out."

Inez is staring at Jackie as if her best friend was a being from another planet. She is still not believing what she is hearing. Hacker, their very worst enemy, is actually helping out the cybersquad? Something about that just isn't right. The only questions that are swimming through her mind right now is, is Hacker in it for himself or does he really have a sincere circuit in his body after all?

"How did you find out?" Inez continues her questions.

"After having dinner with that scum of cyberspace, I stood up from the table and turned around to the video stream." Jackie begins explaining. "The guys were on an ice stage and I saw hacker with them. Adam said he was putting them through some sort of test. I don't know what it was, but that's what he said."

"Anything else?" Inez asks.

"Nope, that's it." Jackie answers.

"I see." Inez simply says, now going back to her pacing.

"I miss Slider so much." Jackie says, her tone now becoming depressed. "We will never see our guys again as long as we're stuck here with no way to get out."

With Inez continuing to pace, an idea now hits her.

"I wouldn't speak too soon Jax." Inez says, now stopping in front of her best friend. "I just got an idea. With me being your hand maiden, I'm to get you anything you want right?"

"According to Adam, but not to me." Jackie replies. "But what are you getting at?"

"Think about it." Inez continues. "If I am to get you whatever you want, I have to know where everything is so I can 'right'?"

Hearing the 'right' at the end of the sentence, Jackie nods in agreement, now knowing what Inez is getting at.

"So, here's what I'm thinking." Inez continues explaining. "All you have to do is ask Adam for a tour of the castle, pretending to be on his side when in reality, you'll be seeking out something that will help us escape, get back into the game, and find the guys. All without letting on what is really going on."

"That means I'll have to be nice to him." Jackie says with a shudder. "Something I really don't want to do."

"Well, don't think of it that way." Inez replies. "Think of it as doing this for Slider. The sooner you get Adam to show you around, the sooner we can get out of here."

"If it's for Slider, then I'll do it." Jackie says.

Getting to her feet, Jackie begins gathering her composure and strength to face Adam. Having gathered enough of her composure and strength, she now faces Inez.

"I'm ready." Jackie says.

"Great." Inez cheers. "Now, once you've found something that will benefit us, make an excuse to come back here and report to me what you've found."

"I sure hope this works." Jackie replies.

"Trust me, it will." Inez says with assurance. "Adam will do anything for you so whatever you want, he'll see to it that you have it."

Nodding to Inez, Jackie now slips out the chamber doors to go face Adam.

"I hope this works too." Inez mentally says to herself. "Who knows what's happening to our guys under Adam's control. I miss Matt so much."

Northern Frontier

With Digit in the game, Dr. Marbles has worked rigorously to get back into the game's configurations. After by passing difficult sectors, Dr. Marbles has gotten back into the game's configurations using Hacker's main frame, Hacker 2.0: The Ultimate System. Currently he is in the game's management settings. That sector lists the number of players, the number of stages, and anything else that is relevant to the game.

"Let's see here." Dr. Marbles says as he begins looking over the sector. "Number of players, 4, number of stages 12, each player has 95 points each."

Continuing to look the sector over on the screen, he notices that a timer is counting down. The timer is currently at 2:05 and 37 seconds. The sight of the timer angers Dr. Marbles.

"Only Adam would stoop so low." Dr. Marbles says, narrowing his eyes as he grips the master controller. "Well, I'm sure Adam wouldn't mind if I slowed things down a bit. No, I'll do one even better, time can't be against them if it isn't moving, so I'll freeze it."

Hitting select on the game controller, a password prompt now comes up on the screen. Putting in the password he thinks it maybe, the password is approved as the timer stops at the current time 2:03 and 59 seconds. The timer and the seconds both begin flashing.

"Now that's what I call time management." Dr. Marbles says with a grin.

"Yay, you did it!" Delete cheers. "Now the boss and the kids won't have to worry about that clock anymore!"

"That's just one of many things Delete." Dr. Marbles says, releasing a long held breath. "There's still a long and hard job ahead of us with many more obstacles that needs to be cleared. With the timer stopped, I will now begin working on cutting Adam off and getting the game under my control. After that, getting the team out of there!"

"Is there anything that we can do to help?" Buzz asks.

"Just be on standby for when I need your assistance." Dr. Marbles instructs.

Dragon Gates Level 9

Falcon Digit and the team are continuing to make their way through level 9 as Digit is swiftly flying the team to the gates of level 10. As Digit continues flying everyone their destination, the team is looking around for any signs of obstacles.

"Man, what a death trap." Matt speaks up, now eyeing the venous cavernous plants below them. "Thank goodness you came along when you did Digit or we would be goners right now."

"For sure." Slider agrees, also noticing the man eating plants below.

"Well, at least the coast is clear all the way to level 10." Hacker adds in.

Having said that, another mutant hoard of Pterodactyls now appears in front of the team. They are on a one way collision with them.

"You spoke too soon Hacker." Digit replies. "We have company."

The hoard is continuing to make their way towards the team as their screech now rips through the air.

"How do those things keep finding us?" Matt asks with frustration.

"It's called hunting." Digit answers Matt. "In the prehistoric age, dinosaurs of all sizes hunted their food to survive and in this case, they are the hunters and we are the hunted, but I'm going to turn the tables so we become the hunters. Hold on."

Picking up his flight speed, Digit whizzes by the hoard and does a U-turn with him now facing the back of the hoard. Opening his mouth, Digit releases a sonic scream with blue rings appearing. The rings quickly make their way towards the mutant hoard, now wiping them out. Having taken out the hoard, Digit turns around and continues leading the team towards the gates to level 10.

"Digit, that was awesome!" Slider cheers.

"Who knew I had it in me?" Digit says with a gloating tone. "Now hang on everyone, level 10 is up ahead and not that far."

Increasing his flight speed once more, Digit continues flying the team towards the gates. Flying a few more inches, the team now reaches the gates to level 10 with Digit landing right in front of the doors. Everyone now climbs off of Digit's back.

"Alright! Just two more levels and Adam is history!" Slider says.

"He's so going down!" Matt agrees with him.

With level 9 done, everyone now enters level 10 and notices the level is a forest level that closely resembles the Amazon rain forest.

"Seriously Hacker, what is with you, the color green, and leaves?" Slider asks, taking a look around the stage. "Didn't we just leave a similar stage not too long ago?"

Before Hacker can answer Slider, a window now appears in front of the guys with King Adam appearing on it. He has a wild look in his eyes followed by a wild grin.

"King Adam!" Hacker, Digit, Slider and Matt say with disgust in unison.

"Hello boys." King Adam greets. "How's it going?"

"What do you want King Adam and are the girls ok?" Matt demands an answer.

"Oh your precious gems are just fine." Adam answers. "However, none of you are!"

"What are you flapping your lips about Adam?" Hacker asks with demand.

"I've hope you've enjoyed playing Dragon Gates because things are about to change!" King Adam says, his eyes become wilder. "Welcome, boys, to the end of the road and the rest of your lives! The game is no longer Dragon Gates, but a game I'd like to call Digital Doom! I guarantee this is one game that neither of you will win!"

Breaking into a full blown maniacal laugh, the stage around the team now changes to a mechanical and computerized level with huge rusty buzz saws emerging from the walls, falling steel walls that emerge from the ceiling, and large rusty spikes that emerge from the floor.

Everyone looks around, not believing what is going on around them.

"Go ahead and make your move!" Adam challenges. "I dare you!"

Adam continues his maniacal laugh with it echoing through level 10. Slider turns to Matt, who turns to Digit who in turn, turns to Hacker. While exchanging glares, no one knows what to do now.

* * *

Oh no! The team is in yet another bind! Will they successfully find their way out of Adam's new game and reach level 12? Will Inez's plan for Jackie to butter up Adam work so they can bust out themselves and just how long will it take before Dr. Marbles cut Adam's ties to the game? These questions answered and more in next week's chapter of End Game! Next chapter: The team experiences Digital Doom with one unexpected surprise that awaits them at the end!

**Review Please!**


	11. Race To The Finish!

**Starter A/N: Before I go on with my chapter, I would like to give a special thanks to all of my reviewers and readers whom have made this story, along with my others, very possible! You guys have inspired me and kept me writing. I owe you all so much! You are awesome! Now, on to End Game!**

Chapter 11: Race To The Finish!

'The game is no longer called Dragon Gates, but now called Digital Doom, Adam's game! Will the team make their way out his fixed game and make it to the end as planned?'

Now that Adam has changed up the game, everyone is now faced with a very big challenge. Will they be able to accept it?

Having turned to each other for answers, no one knows what they are going to do.

"How are we going to get through that?" Matt asks, now going into a panic. "There is NO way that we are going to be able to make it through that! No way, no how! It's hopeless! We might as well give up and admit that Adam has won!"

Hearing the words 'hopeless', 'give up', and admitting that 'Adam has won' come from Matt, Hacker's temper begins rising. With his anger getting the better of him, Hacker now approaches Matt and grabs the boy by his suit of armor. Hacker is wearing an expression of anger that Matt has never seen before and in his opinion, is quite scary.

"You take that back right now!" Hacker hisses. "There is no way that I'm going to admit to such foolishness! It will only be hopeless if we give up and that's one thing I REFUSE to do! I will never admit to letting that digital vampire win! This is MY game and I will get it back if that's the last thing that I do! Do you understand?"

Never seeing the cyborg's temper before that moment, Matt nods in agreement. Hacker now releases Matt as he begins trying to calm his nerves.

"Hacker does have a point." Digit calmly agrees. "If we do give up, we'll be admitting to Adam that he has won and he will be the next ruler of Cyberspace."

"If we thought Hacker was bad, then we're in for a surprise if Adam ever comes into power." Slider adds in. "That's something I'm not looking forward to at all."

"Then we have to work together to get out of here!" Hacker says with determination. "We have to show Adam that he can't defeat the cybersquad no matter how hard he tries! We have to beat him at his own game, play his game better than him! The cybersquad doesn't run when faced with danger, they will win!"

Slider, Matt, and Digit all stare at Hacker with surprised looks. The same cyborg that has dedicated his life to destroying the cybersquad is now cheering them on? Does anyone else find that to be odd?

"Wait, is Hacker cheering us on?" Slider asks, keeping his gaze on Hacker.

"Yes, he is…." Matt replies, also keeping his attention on the cyborg.

"As odd as it sounds, I say we use that to our advantage." Digit speaks up. "Hacker has never been on our side before so while he is at the moment, we all work as a team and get out of here before Adam springs another surprise on us."

"Good point Digit." Slider agrees.

"Now, I have an idea as to how we can get through this stage." Digit says, now turning to the death traps in front of them. "Slider, do you have the Fire and Ice potions?"

"Yep." Slider answers.

"Good, give them to me." Digit requests.

Slider does as he is told and hands Digit the two potions. Consuming the ice potion first, Digit releases an icy breath towards the saws and the spikes that are rapidly emerging from the ground. His breath now comes in contact with the saws and spikes, instantly freezing them in place. Planting his feet firmly into the steel floor, Digit flaps his wings one good time and releases a powerful wind. The wind impacts the frozen weapons and shatters them into a million pieces.

With the saws and spikes demolished, Digit now turns his attention to the falling walls. Consuming the fire potion, Digit quickly releases a blazing breath towards the ceiling, making sure to catch the falling walls while they are still inside the ceiling. His blazing breath now melts the opening of the ceiling where the walls emerge from, making sure the falling walls are to remain sealed up in the ceiling.

"That was awesome Digit!" Matt cheers.

"King Adam will never win if he continues playing amateur games like these." Digit comments with a light chuckle. "Ok everyone, climb on. As long as we have the right away, I say we take it before anything else springs up."

With that, everyone climbs onto Digit's back as the falcon takes flight. With one good flap of his wings, Digit's flight speed increases, now taking the team on their way to the gates of level 11.

Level 12

Adam is continuing to watch the game he created, seeing the team has found a way around his assault weapons.

"Very clever boys, very clever indeed." Adam comments. "However, your swift thinking won't be enough to get you out of what's in store for you later in the stage. I guarantee that."

With Adam's attention fully on the game, Jackie now approaches Adam's chair and takes a seat next to him in her chair.

"Hello there Adam." Jackie greets to him sweetly.

Hearing Jackie's voice, Adam now turns next to him to spot her staring at him with a sweet smile.

"Hello my mistress." Adam greets back. "What can your king do for you?"

"I'm so glad you asked me that." Jackie replies, now snuggling up next to Adam. "I was thinking, sweetie, that since I'm your mistress now, I want to get to know the place that I will be helping you rule from. You know, like give me a tour of the castle?"

Adam gives Jackie a confused look. Just moments ago, she was against having anything to do with him and now she wants to be by his side when he rules cyberspace?

"So you want to be my mistress and be by my side when I rule all of cyberspace?" Adam asks in confusion. "Am I right?"

"Of course." Jackie replies as she bats her eyelashes. "Isn't that what you chose me for?"

"Well, yes, but whatever happened to your protests of not having anything to do with my plans or me?" Adam continues questioning her.

"Well." Jackie begins. "While I was in your chambers with my hand maiden, I got to thinking about it and decided that I wanted to be beside you and be your mistress for all of eternity."

"What about Slider?" Adam questions. "You said you still loved him."

"Who?" Jackie says, continuing to snuggle up next to Adam. "Oh Slider. Now that I'm your mistress, he's an afterthought. Why do I need him when I have you?"

Hearing Jackie say that brings a big smile to Adam's face. Jackie has forgotten all about Slider, which means he doesn't have to worry about him standing in the way of him and Jackie's happiness.

"Hearing you say that is music to my ears Princess!" Adam cheers. "Now how about a kiss for your king?"

"Not yet." Jackie says with a giggle. "Let's take a tour of the castle first and then after that, you will get your reward."

Jumping out of his chair, Adam takes Jackie's hand and helps her to her feet.

"Of course." Adam agrees. "Guard, watch the game until I return with my mistress. I'm going to give her a tour of our castle. Do inform me if there are any changes to my game that I didn't authorize and especially keep a close eye on those players."

"Yes, your majesty." The guard replies, now taking a seat in Adam's chair.

"One more thing before I leave." Adam says to the guard.

The guard listens for Adam's next words.

"Don't sit in my chair!" Adam demands. "Sit somewhere else or stand, but don't sit in my chair! You will horribly discombobulate it!"

The guard immediately stands and bows to Adam.

"Shall we princess?" Adam says sweetly to Jackie.

"Of course." Jackie nods.

As much as it made Jackie sick on the inside to butter up to Adam the way she did, she is happy that her and Inez's plan is working so far. Adam has begun taking her on the tour of the castle, with the kitchen being the first stop.

"This, princess, is the royal kitchen." Adam begins. "This is where my cooks will prepare our meals. If there is ever a problem with the meal or you want a change, be sure to let them know. If they ever give you any back talk, just tell me and they will be fired on the spot!"

"I just love how you take charge." Jackie says, batting her eyelashes. "I just love a man who is strong and who takes total control of the situation."

Smiling, Adam now leads Jackie out of the kitchen as he continues giving her the tour of the castle. The next stop is the castle's Den. The two now enters the Den with Jackie looking around in amazement at how large and elegantly decorated the den is.

"This, princess, is the royal Den." Adam continues. "This is where we will spend many hours cuddling, watching movies and most of all, blocking out the rest of the world for some alone time, just the two of us. If you ever want to talk, just bring me in here and I will listen to your every word."

"It's beautiful." Jackie replies.

"If you think this is gorgeous, then you will really love what is next on our tour." Adam says.

The two now leaves the Den as Adam continues the tour with the Control Room being next. The two now enters the control room.

"This, Jackie, is the control room." Adam introduces. "This is where I make changes to Hacker's wretched game so it suits me. With you being my mistress, you will soon have access to this room. However, I will decide if you are ready to have access to this room."

Hearing that, Jackie can feel a devious grin surfacing. Adam has just given her the information she needed. Because he adores her so much, he is blind to what is really going on. Love can blind one from even the smallest of details if completely consumed in it.

"So exactly how do you make changes to the game in here?" Jackie questions, continuing to keep up her sweet and loving act.

"That is a real interesting question princess." Adam replies, now leading Jackie over to the controls. "You see, I take the map I have of Hacker's game, which is located on top of the file cabinet in the corner, and use these controls to make changes to the sectors I feel need improvement and if you ask me, is the entire game."

"I see." Jackie simply says.

"Now, next on our tour is the royal balcony, which is where we will be eating our meals under the starlight sky." Adam says, now turning to Jackie. "The balcony, princess, is outside of our royal resting place. Shall we continue to the next destination?"

"Maybe a bit later Adam." Jackie replies. "I have an assignment for my hand maiden. You see, I'm getting hungry and now that I know where the kitchen is, I can tell Inez and she can go get me a snack."

"Why go all that way back to my chambers when we can simply go there ourselves right now?" Adam questions.

"Because I want my hand maiden to get it." Jackie quickly speaks up. "You did assign me to have one so why not just let her do her job? Besides, you have cyberspace to rule, which is enough work for you."

"Are you sure princess?" Adam asks. "I mean, it's not too much trouble for me at all."

"Positive." Jackie replies. "My hand maiden hasn't gotten an assignment since she was assigned to me, so this would be her first."

"If you wish Princess." Adam says, lightly sighing. "I'll have my guard escort you back to my chambers."

"No need for that." Jackie protests. "I know my way back."

"So after you get your snack, can we continue our tour?" Adam asks. "I have so much to show you."

"Of course." Jackie nods. "I would love that."

"Ok, go get your snack princess." Adam sweetly speaks to Jackie. "I wouldn't want you to pass out from hunger during our tour."

With a smile, Jackie now slips out of the control room and begins making her way back to Adam's chambers.

"Thanks Adam." Jackie says to herself. "Not only did you play right into my hands, but you gave me just what I needed. Me and Inez will be back in the game before we know it."

Continuing to make her way back to the chambers, Jackie makes her way through a series of halls and one short passageway. Having gone through the maze of halls, Jackie now arrives back at Adam's chambers. Closing the chamber doors behind her gets Inez's attention.

"So what did you find out?" Inez questions, now approaching Jackie.

"Adam is controlling the game through a control room here in the castle!" Jackie reports. "He even has a map of Hacker's whole game!"

"Did you get a chance to see it?" Inez anxiously questions.

"That I didn't." Jackie replies. "However, he did tell me where to find it, which is just as good."

"Yes! My plan worked!" Inez cheers, but not loud enough for any of the guards to hear. "Great, now that you know where the control room is, this is how the rest of the plan is going to go."

Jackie and Inez now huddle up as Inez begins telling Jackie how the rest of the plan will go.

Digital Doom Level 10

With the team on Digit's back as he continues flying through the level, Digit is continuing to take the players to the gates to level 11. They have to admit, if Digit hadn't joined the team when he did, making it to the end of the game would have been a lot harder and a lot more work. Something that they didn't look forward to.

"I bet Adam is blowing his circuits right now knowing we made it around his death traps!" Matt speaks up. "He has no idea who is messing with!"

"Well of course no bad guy likes it when the good guys find ways around their traps." Slider replies. "It just makes more work for them to try and stop the good guys."

"Well then, I guess Adam will be knee deep in work just by trying to stop us then." Hacker agrees. "Especially when he finds out how far we've gotten."

"I guess he's begun working on his plan because we have a few things to dodge up ahead." Digit speaks adds in.

Everyone looks ahead to see what Digit is speaking of and spots Laser Cannons on the ground and on the ceiling. With the cannons being motioned censored, the cannons detect their presence and now turn in their direction as they begin charging. With the cannons done charging, they now release simultaneous blue beams towards the team, which makes Digit halt in mid-air.

"So how we going to make it through that?" Slider asks while trying to keep his cool. "I want to make it to Jackie in one piece."

"I'll show you how." Digit replies.

Taking a deep breath, Digit now releases his held breath and dispenses an icy breath towards both sets of laser cannons. Both sets of cannons immediately freeze up with the cannons on the ceiling crashing to the ground and crushing those on the ground.

"Shall we proceed?" Digit asks in gloating tone as he continues his transporting flight.

Continuing to transport the team, Slider now spots the gates to Level 11 straight up ahead.

"The gates to level 11!" Slider cheers.

"Hang on everyone." Digit says, now increasing his flight speed.

Flying a few more feet, Digit now arrives at the elevated level that is sitting outside of level 11's doors. Landing, everyone now climbs off Digit's back and is about to go inside the level for when red laser beams suddenly appear in front of the door, blocking everyone's way.

"More lasers!" Matt says with frustration. "Does Adam not have anything else better to come up with?!"

Studying the lasers, Slider traces the lasers origins to the top of the doors, now spotting laser cannons at the top of the doors to level 11. Now spotting where the lasers are coming from, an idea comes to Slider.

"This gives me an idea." Slider speaks. "Matt, do you still have your shield?"

"Yeah, I do." Matt answers. "How is my shield going to help us get passed these lasers?"

"Don't ask questions, just pay attention." Slider replies. "Take out your shield and throw it in the path of one of the lasers. By doing that, the laser will bounce off of your shield and will be projected back towards the cannon, which will take the cannon down. After that, we'll be home free to level 11."

Taking in Slider's advice, Matt now takes out his shield and tosses it towards one of the lasers closest to the door. Just as Slider said would happen, the laser bounces off of Matt's shield and is projected towards the cannon it is originating from, completely destroying it. Slider takes out his shield and tosses it in the path of two lasers, which reflects off of his shield and is projected back towards the laser cannons. Both cannons come crashing down to the ground completely destroyed. With the laser cannons down, everyone is free and clear to proceed.

"Shall we everyone?" Slider says, motioning for them to proceed.

Digit and Hacker head in first. Slider and Matt grab their shields and heads in behind them. Level 10 is officially finished.

Level 12

With Jackie knowing where the control room is, she and Inez are quietly making their way there, making sure not to get caught by Adam or the guards along the way. The two girls now arrive at the control room and quickly slip inside.

"Now where did Adam say he kept the map to Hacker's game?" Inez whispers to Jackie.

"On top of the file cabinet." Jackie answers Inez, now making her way over to the cabinet.

Reaching the cabinet, Jackie looks to the top of the cabinet and spots the rolled up map.

Noticing how tall the file cabinet is against her height, Jackie begins looking around for anything that could lift her so she can reach the top. Not finding anything, Jackie turns to Inez.

"Inez, I see the map, but I can't reach it." Jackie says. "Could you give me a lift?"

Nodding, Inez quickly makes her way over to Jackie and kneels down so Jackie can climb on her shoulders. Jackie climbs on Inez's shoulders with Inez lifting her so she can reach the top of the cabinet. With the map sitting right on the edge, Jackie quickly grabs it and climbs off Inez's shoulders.

"You're amazingly light Jackie." Inez compliments.

"Thanks." Jackie replies. "Now let's get out of here and get back in the game with our guys!"

With the map in their grasps, both girls are making their way out of the control room for when Adam walks in, instantly stopping them. Seeing them brings a suspicious look to Adam's face.

"What are you two doing in here?" Adam asks, eyeing the two girls.

"We were just taking a walk." Inez speaks up with a nervous smile, Jackie nodding in agreement. "Jackie was showing me around so I will be able to get things for her. After all, I am her hand maiden."

Not buying Inez's story, Adam now spots the map to Hacker's game in Jackie's hands. He snatches the map from her and holds it up.

"Would her showing you around happen to be getting a hold of this map to Hacker's game?" Adam asks, his temper beginning to surface. "What do you two think you were trying to pull here and just how stupid do you think I am?"

Jackie opens her mouth to speak, but is immediately cut off by Adam's continued rant.

"Inez, you are not to be out of my chambers under any circumstances!" Adam practically yells. "And Jackie, do you want to explain to me what you THOUGHT you were going to do with these?"

Both girls turn to each other and back to Adam.

"You two are in so much trouble!" Adam hisses.

One of the guards now runs into the control room.

"Your highness!" The guard says, his tone panic ridden. "You have to come quick!"

"What is it?!" Adam asks in frustration, turning to the guard.

"The players have by-passed your traps on level 10 and are now on level 11!" The guard informs Adam.

Hearing that makes Adam's eyes go wide, which quickly convert to slants in anger.

"I have had it!" Adam yells. "This ends now! I've had enough of this child's play!"

Adam now turns back to the girls.

"You two are coming with me!" Adam hisses, now grabbing both girls by the arms.

With both girls in his grip, Adam begins dragging them out of the room and towards the main area of the castle.

Digital Doom (Level 11)

With the team on level 11, they are making a strategy as to how they are going to make it through that level. On level 11, everything is ten times bigger than they are.

"So what's the plan to get through here?" Matt asks. "We are tiny compared to everything else on this stage."

"Well, considering how everything is ten times bigger than we are, I say we use that to our advantage and stay low for right now." Slider answers Matt. "If we can go undetected for as long as possible, we can make it from here to the gates of level 12 in no time flat."

"I would reconsider that plan if I were you!" Adam's voice rings out.

Hearing Adam's voice, everyone turns around and spots Adam walking up to them.

"How much longer are you going to keep hiding behind holograms Adam?" Hacker asks. "When are you going to get the guts to face us?"

"I guarantee you that I am no hologram boys." Adam replies, now stopping a short distance from the team. "I am here in the flesh."

"What are you doing here?" Slider asks. "Aren't we to face you on level 12?"

"Once again, the rules have changed." Adam says as the stone block he is standing on begins levitating him. "You see, if I am to become the next ruler of cyberspace, I have to eliminate those who stand in my way, which would be all of you, but before I lay waste to you all."

Snapping his fingers, the block he is standing on stops in mid-air and the two guards bring the girls into view. They are both concealed in blue electric bubbles and are both wearing sad expressions.

"Jackie…" Slider speaks.

"Inez…"Matt also says.

"I just wanted the girls to get one last look at you before I lay waste to your existence." Adam says with a grin. "Any last words?"

"Yea, we have a few." Slider replies as he and Matt wields their swords simultaneously. "You're finished!"

Continuing to grin, Adam's human form now changes to a large red demon complete with horns, sharp teeth, and sharp claws. The girls' expressions change from sad to frightened with the guys' expressions turning from determined to shocked.

Adam now blows fire to demonstrate his new ability in his new form.

"This is where it ends!" Adam says in his demonic voice. "Welcome to End Game!"

* * *

This is it folks! This is what you've all been waiting for! The battle of End Game begins! Who will win? King Adam in his new form or the Cybersquad for Jackie and Inez's freedom? The next chapter of End Game will answer those questions and more! Next chapter of End Game: Cyberchase: End Game!

**Review Please and Happy Halloween!**


	12. Cyberchase: End Game!

Chapter 12: Cyberchase: End Game!

'The battle of End Game is here and both parties are dead locked for the final victory, but who will win? King Adam or the cybersquad for the girls' freedom? This chapter will reveal all!'

With the team face to face with Adam on level 11, they now have to figure out a way to defeat him, more specifically in the form he is in now.

"This is where it ends!" Adam proclaims, blowing fire to demonstrate his new ability in his new form. "Welcome to End Game!"

"Ok, what do we do now?" Matt asks, his shocked expression unchanging as he keeps his focus on Adam. "We didn't plan on Adam turning into that."

"What's the matter boys?" Adam asks, a grin creeping onto his demonic face. "You look as if something scared you."

"We're not afraid of you Adam!" Hacker says, his expression now turning back to determined. "Whatever you've got, we can take! Bring it on!"

"I like your attitude about this hacker." Adam says with a laugh. "I'll tell you boys what I'll do. I'll make this a fair fight so there are no chances of odds in this battle."

Adam's eyes now shine a bright white as a set of weapons appears in front of the guys. The weapons are an axe, a majestic sword and shield, a mace, and a bull whip. Turning back to the guys, Adam grins.

"Go ahead boys, choose your weapons." Adam says. "Be sure to choose wisely because the weapon you choose now will determine you and your teammate's fate, not to mention the fate of your precious gems."

Looking the weapons over, the guys now choose their weapons. Hacker takes the majestic sword and shield, Slider takes the whip, and Matt takes the axe. That only leaves the mace.

"The only weapon left is the mace." Matt points out. "We all have our weapons."

"The last one is for Digit." Slider replies.

"I don't need any weapons!" Digit speaks, now grounding his claws into the ground. "I already have my weapons!"

With that, Slider takes the mace which now gives him two weapons.

"So what's the plan to take Adam down?" Slider asks.

"I'll tell you what we're going to do." Hacker says. "Huddle up."

The guys and Digit now huddle up.

"Ok, here's how we're going to defeat him." Hacker begins explaining, only loud enough for the guys to hear. "Digit, you fly overhead and attack him in the air, Matt, you get on his right side, I'll get him from behind, and Slider, you attack him from the left. With all of us in those positions, there is no way he can attack all of us at once and the more hits we get in on him from where we stand, the better."

"You seem to have forgotten that Adam can now blow fire." Slider reminds the cyborg. "While your plan is a good one, how are we going to deal with that?"

"Do your best to avoid it when you attack him." Hacker replies. "No telling how powerful his fire attack could be, it could take one if not all of your lives. Matt, that especially goes for you considering you only have 3 lives left."

"Thanks for reminding me." Matt says, rolling his eyes.

"So is everyone clear on what to do?" Hacker asks.

Everyone nods in agreement.

"Ok boys, let's get to work!" Hacker says. "Let's take Adam down!"

The guys now break and turn back to Adam.

"Oh, there's one more thing I forgot to tell you guys." Adam says to the guys.

Turning his focus to just Digit and Hacker, Adam's eyes light up as green beams now shoots from them. The beams impact Hacker and Digit, instantly turning them into stone.

"Digit! Hacker!" The girls scream.

"Hey, no fair!" Matt says with disbelief. "That only leaves just me and Slider to fight you! You said this would be a fair fight!"

"Oh but this is a fair fight boys." Adam says. "Since both Digit and Hacker have been your advantage throughout this game, it would simply be unfair if they continued to be, so to make it fair, I put an end to it. So consider your life lines disconnected."

"That's not playing fair Adam!" Jackie yells. "There are odds in this fight!"

"This is my game Princess." Adam replies. "I make all the rules."

"Whether we have Digit or Hacker or both, we will bring you down Adam!" Slider spits. "Count on that!"

"Well then, give me your best shot boys!" Adam says with a grin.

Matt and Slider get into fighting position to fight Adam.

The Northern Frontier

Doctor Marbles is continuing to work on cutting Adam off from the game, having already changed a few things in the game's management settings.

"Now that I've changed the amount of time the kids have to work with, which is all the time they need, and the amount of points each of them has, it's time to finally put an end to Adam's reign once and for all." Dr. Marbles says, now exiting out of the management sector of the game's settings.

The screen returns to the team in the game with Dr. Marbles, Delete and Buzz getting a full view of what the kids' status is currently.

"It's the boss, Digit, and the kids." Buzz points out. "Hey, who's that big red dragon guy?

"That is them and they are fighting Adam!" Dr. Marbles says, his voice stricken with surprise. "It's too soon! They haven't reached level 12 yet!"

Delete now takes a closer look at the screen and notices Digit and Hacker aren't joining the battle with Matt and Slider as they attack Adam and notices why.

"The boss and Digit have been turned to stone!" Delete begins panicking. "How are they supposed to help the kids out if they are in stone?"

"They can't delete." Dr. Marbles says with a sigh. "This took place sooner than I expected it to, which throws a huge wrench in my plans of getting them out of there and cutting Adam off. I have to quickly reassess my plan in order to accommodate this untimely change."

"How are you going to do that doc?" Delete questions.

Just as Dr. Marbles opens his mouth to answer Delete, a warning pops up on the screen flashing: System Overload! System Overload! System Crash in 7 minutes!

"System crash?" Dr. Marbles questions, while doing his best to remain calm. "How can that be?"

Unsure of what is going on and why the warning popped up, Dr. Marbles quickly enters Hacker's system settings. Being in the system settings, he goes to the system's CPU usage sector and takes notice of what caused the warning to pop up. From what Dr. Marbles can see, the system's CPU usage is 100 percent and above, the physical along with the kernel memory has been maxed out with no free space available, which also indicates that the system's main memory along with the virtual memory has been used up and the system's hard drive is on the verge of crashing. In other words, with all the memory maxed out, the hard drive can't continue running the game due to no free space.

"This is not good!" Dr. Marbles says, his panic surfacing. "The entire system doesn't have enough memory to continue running the game, which is overloading the system and if the hard drive crashes, Hacker, Digit, and the kids' data will be lost forever! 7 minutes isn't nearly enough time for me to cut Adam off and get the kids out of there!"

"What are we going to do?" Buzz asks, also going into a panic.

"The only thing we can do." Dr. Marbles answers the small robot, now getting his panicking under control. "I will continue to work on my plan of ending Adam's reign, despite the time allotted, while you and Delete search for the manual to Hacker's game system. Something in there should tell me how to restore the memory so I can safely back the system up so the entire thing doesn't have a chance to crash. Any data lost cannot be recovered."

"You got it doc." Delete says. "You heard him, let's go Buzzy."

The two robots now scramble out of the room to go searching for the manual, just leaving Dr. Marbles to work on his plan.

"I guarantee you will lose this game Adam!" Dr. Marbles says with determination. "And I'll see to that!"

Control Central

With Dr. Marbles and Digit off at the Northern Frontier, Motherboard has begun searching her memory bank for the video game's link. The kids' well being and safety is just as important to her as it is to Dr. Marbles and Digit so whatever it is she can do to help them out, she will.

"It has got to be here." Motherboard says, continuing to search for the link. "Adam doesn't have the power to erase the link from my memory bank. It is behind a very powerful firewall that doesn't even allow the most powerful of intruders to enter."

Continuing to search for the link to the game, Motherboard now stumbles upon a video game stream and notices it is streaming from the Northern Frontier. Investigating the stream, she notices that Hacker's digital signature is on the stream, but the name of the game the stream is flowing under is different.

"What have I come across?" Motherboard questions, continuing to investigate the stream. "Hacker's signature is on this game's stream, but it's not the name of the game he created. This could be one of Adam's tricks. I better check this out."

Now tapping into the game's stream, Motherboard gets a full view of the level the kids are on and what's taking place. From what she sees, Matt and Slider are attacking Adam from all sides, Adam is fighting back, Hacker and Digit are encased in stone and the girls are in bubbles. The entire scene is devastating to her.

"I was right! It is one of Adam's tricks!" Motherboard says, anger evident in her tone. "He has hacked Hacker's game and has turned it into one of his own! He must be stopped at once!"

Determined to stop Adam any way she can, Motherboard uses Hacker's signature on the game's stream and enters the game's configurations. Seeing what she has gotten into, a smile comes to Motherboard's face.

"Hello, what do we have here?" Motherboard says as she begins observing the game's configurations. "I think I may have stumbled onto something that could be of good use to me. I have to give it to Adam, he cleverly hid the game's link behind the name he chose for the game, even though hacker's digital signature is still on the stream. That I do give him credit for, even though it did him no good."

Continuing to search through the configurations for anything she can use to severe Adam's ties, she now spots something very unusual. In the level sector of the configurations, Motherboard notices that the earlier levels of the game before level 11 are being erased and are being transferred to level 11, to Adam.

"Adam is drawing off of the game's resources and is gaining power!" Motherboard says in a shocked tone. "With him doing that, he's going to make the entire system overload and crash! If that happens, the kids, Hacker, and Digit's data will be lost forever with no chance of being recovered! I better warn Dr. Marbles and fast!"

Northern Frontier

Dr. Marbles is continuing to work tirelessly to severe Adam's ties from the game as he is racing against the clock. The time left before the game crashes is T minus 5 minutes and 30 seconds.

Now exiting out of the player's sector of the game, Dr. Marbles now enters the level sector.

"I have 5 minutes to pull off my plan or else everyone's data will be lost forever!" Dr. Marbles says, now entering the password for the level sector. "Something I simply can't allow!"

The password into the game's level sector is approved as Dr. Marbles enters and begins observing the sector. Continuing to look the sector over, he now notices that the levels ahead of level 11 are being erased from the game and that the data is being transferred to level 11, to Adam.

"The earlier levels of the game are being erased and are being transferred to level 11, to Adam." Dr. Marbles says. "That must be another one of Adam's tricks! Do all the damage you want Adam because your time is drawing near!"

Just as Dr. Marbles is about to exit the level sector, Motherboard appears on the screen, giving Dr. Marbles a scare.

"Dr. Marbles." Motherboard calls. "Dr. Marbles, please respond at once."

"I'm here Motherboard." Dr. Marbles responds, regaining his composure. "What can I do for you?"

"I have made a terrifying discovery!" Motherboard begins. "I have discovered that Adam is drawing off of the game's resources. He's becoming powerful by erasing the earlier data of the game and if he continues doing that then the game.."

"Will crash!" Dr. Marbles finishes Motherboard's sentence. "Of course! How could I have missed that? That's why the system is on the verge of crashing and the earlier levels of the game are being erased and transferred to Adam!"

"Precisely." Motherboard comments. "While the situation is very devastating, I do have a plan that just might turn everything around in the nick of time."

"Any help you could offer at this point, Motherboard, would be of very good use." Dr. Marbles says in a pleading tone. "I am running out of options."

"My plan is to use Hacker's digital signature and enter the game myself." Motherboard begins. "After entering the game, I will reverse the process of Adam drawing off of the resources and redirect it back to the entire system. That will save system from crashing and everyone in the game from being erased for good."

"Great plan Motherboard!" Dr. Marbles says with excitement. "That will buy me plenty of time to figure out Hacker's system so I can safely back it up and continue with my plan. You couldn't have arrived at a better time."

"Where are Buzz and Delete?" Motherboard asks, now noticing the two robots aren't in the room.

"They are searching for Hacker's game system owner's manual." Dr. Marbles answers. "I wonder if they have found it by now."

"While they are looking for the manual, I will put my plan into action." Motherboard says. "Be aware of any signs appearing on the screen as this will mean good news."

"Will do." Dr. Marbles nods.

Motherboard now disappears from the screen as she is on her way into the game to put her plan into action.

Hacker's Laboratory

Buzz and Delete have torn the entire lab apart in search of the game system manual.

"Where could that manual be?" Delete asks, now opening another box. "We have looked all over this room and have come up short."

"No clue Dee Dee." Buzz answers his best friend, continuing to search behind the couch. "Nope, nothing back here."

Closing the box he opened, Delete puts it back on the shelf and spots a red book lying on its side. Grabbing the book, Delete opens it and begins looking through it.

"Hey Buzzy, I found something." Delete informs him.

Buzz now joins Delete's side as Delete continues looking through the book. Flipping through the pages, both robots notice that the book lists a set of instructions to build a machine.

"This might be the book that we've been looking for." Buzz says.

"Um, I wouldn't be so sure about that Buzz." Delete replies. "This book explains how to build robots."

Delete now closes the book and reads the title on the front cover which reads: How to Build Smarter Robots that will outsmart Buzz and Delete.

"Hey, this is the boss's book on how to make more robots!" Delete says in an outrage. "That are smarter than we are! The boss doesn't think we're smart!"

"We can't worry about that right now Dee Dee." Buzz says, completely ignoring what Delete has said. "We have to continue searching for that manual."

Silently agreeing to what Buzz has said, Delete puts the book back on the shelf and continues helping Buzz search for the game system's manual in the torn apart room.

Digital Doom

Slider and Matt are continuing their battle against Adam as they now avoid his laser eye vision. The ground in which they were standing is now a smoking crater.

"This is a lot harder than I thought it would be." Matt says as he and Slider join back to back. "When Hacker explained the plan, it sounded a lot easier."

"Of course it did." Slider replies. "It always sounds easy until you actually have to do it! Now that Hacker can't help us, we have to avoid Adam's laser eye beams, stone beams, and fire attack the best way we can as they take off a lot of points, not to mention lives! So what are we going to do now?"

"No idea." Matt replies, his back still against Sliders. "But I will suggest we keep up the tactics that we've been using. So far, we've managed to take off some of his points and two of his lives so if we keep this up, he'll be down before we know it."

"That's it?" Slider asks. "That's all you have? That could take forever!"

"Got any better ideas oh great leader?" Matt replies. "We are the only two fighters who holds the fate of not only Hacker and Digit, but as well as our girlfriends lives in our hands! I say we go with what we know for right now. Are you ready to go back in?"

"I'm as ready as I'll ever be." Slider replies with a nod.

Departing from each other, Slider and Matt now face Adam.

"Back for more punishment boys?" Adam speaks, his demonic tone roaring. "I'd thought by now you would have given up."

"You know Adam, for a bad guy, you're not that smart!" Slider sneers. "The day we give up is the day we lose to you!"

"Well then, consider this your lucky day!" Adam replies in a laugh.

Just focusing his attention on Slider, Adam releases his laser vision towards Slider. The attack immediately impacts him, which makes Slider disappear.

"Slider!" Jackie, Inez, and Matt shout with despair.

Having lost a life, Slider now reappears with 3 hearts appearing over him.

"Tell me Slider, how much do you want to keep those final 3 lives?" Adam questions with a demonic grin.

"As much as I want to see the end of you!" Slider replies. "If it takes my last and final life, I will bring you down!"

"Hey, don't forget about me." Matt says.

Continuing to grin, Adam now releases his fire breath towards both boys. Seeing the attack coming at them at lightning speed, both boys duck out of the way.

"That was a close one." Matt says.

"You said it." Slider agrees.

With the boys locked in battle with Adam, Motherboard now enters level 11. She notices that the battle with Adam is still continuing.

"This is where it ends for you Adam!" Motherboard speaks. "It's time to pull the plug on your power source for good, but before I do that."

Drawing a small amount of power off of Adam herself, Motherboard uses that power to release the girls from their bubble prisons. The bubbles around the girls now vanish. With the girls free, Motherboard exits the level, now on her way to restore the game and the system resources.

Confused as to what's going on, Inez and Jackie turn to each other.

"What happened?" Jackie asks in confusion.

"I don't know, but we're back in the game!" Inez says with excitement. "Let's go help out our guys!"

With a nod, both girls run from behind Adam and onto the battle field. Matt and Slider take notice of the girls and smiles. Slider and Matt open their arms with their girlfriends running into them. Seeing the girls free confuses Adam.

"What the?" Adam asks in confusion

"Oh I've missed you so much Matt!" Inez says as she hugs Matt tightly.

"Oh Sly!" Jackie happily cries. "I thought I'd never see you again! I love you!"

"I've missed you too Jackie." Slider replies, gazing into Jackie's eyes.

"My warrior princess is back." Matt cheers, holding Inez tightly.

"Oh this is all very touching, not to mention sickening!" Adam roars. "Get one last look at your guys ladies because this is the last time you'll see them!"

"Says you!" Jackie snaps. "The only one going down in this battle is you!"

"Your words mean nothing Princess!" Adam roars. "You betrayed me, you stabbed me in the back and made me think you were really on my side! No mistress of mine has ever done that to me and lived!"

"I'm a pretty good actress if I do say so myself." Jackie says with a sly grin.

"You will pay for your betrayal with your life!" Adam sneers.

Focusing his attention on just Jackie, Adam releases his stone vision beams towards her. Knowing what Adam's move is, Slider pushes Jackie behind him and gets hit by the stone beams. He now turns to stone.

"Oh no Slider!" Jackie shouts, sadness quickly coming over her. "Slider! Speak to me! Slider!"

"Your precious Slider is now just a lawn ornament." Adam says, a chuckle surfacing. "I think I'll put him in my castle for decoration. He'll make a great addition to the antiques I collect."

Jackie's sadness quickly turns to anger as she faces Adam.

"Is there something you want to say to me Princess?" Adam asks, pretending to sound sincere. "Such as beg for my forgiveness?"

"You have no idea what you've just done!" Jackie growls, her eyes burning with anger. "You mess with my boyfriend, you mess with me!"

Matt and Inez watch on as Jackie's temper rapidly surfaces. Never seeing her temper before today, they are unsure of what to do.

"I have never seen Jackie quite like this before." Matt whispers to Inez.

"Neither have I, but her anger is well placed." Inez replies. "With her this angry, Adam doesn't stand a chance at winning. Let's go."

Taking Matt's hand, she and Matt begin making their way to Jackie's side.

"Even though it was you I was aiming for, your boyfriend sacrificing himself was just as good." Adam says with a grin. "Now it's time to deal with you!"

"If you want to get to Jackie, you're going to have to go through me!" Inez replies walking up to Jackie's right side.

"And me!" Matt says, now arriving on Jackie's left side.

"Then I can do away with you three all at once." Adam says, focusing his reptile eyes on the three.

"Fine, then we'll do this your way!" Jackie hisses. "Matt, hand me your axe!"

With no words spoken, Matt hands Jackie his axe. Swinging it into position, Jackie positions it towards Adam.

"Bring it on!" Jackie challenges.

Northern Frontier

Despite the hair line time limit, Dr. Marbles is still hard at work on his plan. Continuing to work, a percentage bar now arrives on the right side of the screen. Seeing that makes Dr. Marbles smile. The bar now reaches 2 percent with the system announcing: System Restoration in 2 minutes!

"You're right on time Motherboard." Dr. Marbles says to himself, noticing the bar beginning to fill up.

Now leaving out of the system's configurations, Dr. Marbles enters the game's management settings. Entering the password to bypass, the password is approved as he now enters the trademark sector. Halting on making his final move, Dr. Marbles turns his attention to the percentage bar on the screen which now reads 75 percent.

"As soon as 100 percent is achieved, that's when I'll pull the plug." Dr. Marbles plans, keeping his attention on the bar.

The bar is continuing to climb to the top as it now reaches 85 percent. Leaving from 85, the bar rapidly reaches 90 percent. Entering the password to the trademark sector, Dr. Marbles hits select on the game pad. The password is approved as he is now face to face with Adam's trademark on the game, his only connection to the game and his only source of power.

The bar now climbs to 95 percent. Dr. Marbles now highlights the trademark as his thumb hovers over the B button, the button that can make or break this entire situation. The bar now reaches 100 percent with the system announcing: Full System Restore!

Slamming his thumb down on the B button, the trademark now disappears fully from the sector. Any and all ties Adam had to the game have been severed!

"Say good bye to your power Adam!" Dr. Marbles says with a chuckle.

Buzz and Delete now enter the room with Hacker's Game system manual.

"We found it! Delete announces.

"Good work Buzz and Delete!" Dr. Marbles congratulates the robots as they approach him.

Delete now hands the manual over to Dr. Marbles.

"Now with phase one out of the way, it's time to move on to phase two." Dr. Marbles says, now thumbing through the manual.

Digital Doom

Jackie, Inez, and Matt are continuing their battle with Adam with Jackie doing most of the attacking.

"This is trying to steal me away from my boyfriend!" Jackie yells, taking the axe across Adam once more. 10 lives are knocked off of him.

"I can't STAND it when anyone attacks the one I love!" Jackie roars once more, her axe slicing into Adam again. 20 lives are now deducted.

"This is for assigning me to be a servant!" Inez yells, now taking an arrow though Adam from her crossbow. 5 lives are knocked off.

"And this is for just being big red and creepy!" Matt yells as he now slashes Adam with his sword. 20 more lives are knocked off.

Continuing to endure hits from all sides, Adam can feel he is losing his strength.

"I wouldn't have joined your side if you were the last PIECE of cyber material in all of Cyberspace!" Jackie yells as she slices through Adam once more. 100 lives are deducted.

Adam's size is now beginning to decrease rapidly. With his power source unplugged and a lot of his lives gone, he doesn't have the strength to continue fighting. The three notices his size decrease, which brings a devious grin to Jackie's face.

"Ready to give up Adam?" Jackie asks, noticing Adam's size shrinking down to theirs.

"Never!" Adam replies. "I will continue fighting until the end!"

"Now that can go two ways." Inez remarks. "Do you mean our end or yours?"

"He means his end." Jackie answers Inez.

With Adam's size continuing to decrease, he is now sized down to the same size as the team and falls off of the stone platform he was standing on. Hitting the ground, Jackie, Inez, and Matt surround him.

"Now this is what I like to see." Jackie begins. "An enemy with no power. Is there anything you would like to say to me Adam? Such as beg for mercy?"

Looking up towards Jackie, Adam grins.

"You may have won this round Princess, but I guarantee you haven't heard the last of me." Adam replies as he closes his eyes.

With his eyes closed, Adam now deteriorates into the ground. With Adam gone, the three breathes a sigh of relief.

"It's over." Jackie sighs in relief as Matt and Inez hug her.

Hacker, Digit, and Slider now change back to themselves as they begin looking around.

"Was I asleep?" Hacker asks as he looks himself over. "The last thing I remember before blacking out was Adam."

"Same here." Digit says in agreement.

"Adam turned us to stone." Slider says. "That's the last thing I remember."

Continuing to look around, Slider now looks ahead of him and spots Jackie with Matt and Inez. He notices that Inez is hugging Jackie as she cries on her shoulder.

"I can't believe I'll never hear Slider's voice again." Jackie chokes out through sobs. "I love him so much."

"I love you too Jackie." Slider's voice speaks from behind Jackie.

Hearing Slider's voice, Jackie perks up and quickly turns around to spot Slider smiling at her.

"Slider!" Jackie shouts as she runs into his arms. "I thought I'd never hear your voice again!"

"Adam might have been powerful, but he never had the power to separate us." Slider replies, wrapping his arms around Jackie. "No matter how hard he might have tried."

Smiling wider, Jackie kisses Slider and continues hugging him.

"The same goes for us." Matt says, now taking Inez in his arms. "No power in the world could ever separate us. I love you Nezzie."

"I love you too Matt." Inez replies as she kisses Matt. "And don't call me Nezzie."

"Are you serious?" Matt asks. "I've been your boyfriend for over a year now and I still can't call you nezzie?"

"Well, you are my boyfriend, so I can make an exception in your case." Inez replies with a smile.

A window now appears in front of the team with Dr. Marbles appearing on it.

"Remarkable job team! Very good job indeed!" Dr. Marbles cheers. "There isn't a challenge yet you haven't faced that could ever stop the cybersquad!"

"Thanks Dr. Marbles." Slider replies.

"And Hacker, I thought I'd never say this, but I'm glad I invented you." Dr. Marbles praises. "When the kids needed help, you really came through for them. Your selfless act will forever be remembered."

"Thank you for the recognition, 'dad'." Hacker grins.

Continuing to exchange words, the digital world around the team now begins flickering. Halting their conversation with the doc, the team notices the environment around them.

"What's going on?" Jackie asks as she hugs tightly onto Slider.

"That is also why I contacted you all." Dr. Marbles begins. "Motherboard and I were able to severe Adam's ties from the game. With his connection lost, the game he created will fall apart considering it doesn't have the power source it once had. With him defeated, there is nothing left, but to get you all out of there. Motherboard has set up a portal on level 8 for you all to exit through and come back to cyberspace."

"Way to go doc and Motherboard!" Slider cheers.

"While the victory is good news, I have some bad news." Dr. Marbles continues. "While Motherboard was able to save the game from crashing by restoring what data Adam was stealing, you all have 3 minutes to make it out of his game. While the game is safe from crashing, I wasn't able to reverse the damage Adam's game was predicted to cause. I look forward to seeing you all back here very soon."

The window disappears with everyone turning to each other.

"There is only one solution to this problem." Digit speaks up. "Everyone climb on! We have time to race against and it's not on our side."

Digit now gets into flight position as everyone quickly climbs on his back. With everyone climbed on and holding on tight, Digit now takes flight as he now exits level 11 through level 11's doors.

* * *

Way to go team! Adam is defeated and the Digital World is now safe, but will making it out of Adam's digital world be as easy as defeating him? Keep reading to find out! Next chapter of End Game: The Ultimate Race Against Time back to Cyberspace!

**Review Please!**


	13. The Ultimate Race Against Time

Chapter 13: Ultimate Race To The Finish!

'Now that Adam has been defeated, the game has begun falling apart with the kids having 3 minutes to make it out! Will they make it out before time is up?'

Having defeated Adam on level 11 and with the kids and Hacker on Digit's back, everyone has begun their journey out of the digital world with less than 5 minutes to make it out.

Having flown out of level 11 through the gates, the team is now on level 10. The girls begin looking around level 10, seeing what the guys had to go through.

"What level did this use to be?" Jackie questions, continuing to observe the level.

"A death trap that Adam thought he could trap us in." Slider replies.

"Wow, Adam had a lot of time on his hands to come up with this level." Inez adds in. "It looks advanced."

"It was advanced." Matt comments. "Thanks to Digit's awesome ability and Slider's quick thinking, we were able to turn this stage into the trash compactor you ladies see before you now."

"That it is Matty." Digit agrees. "That it is."

"If you ask me, since that vampire took control of my game, it's been a trash compactor!" Hacker scoffs.

As the team continues making their way through the level, the destruction of the game now catches up with level 10 as large amounts of debris begins falling from the sky. Seeing the falling debris, Digit increases his flight speed as he begins dodging the falling debris.

"This place is falling apart and fast!" Slider says.

"Hey Slider, why don't we give it a go one last time for old time sake." Matt suggests with a sly smile.

"You got it buddy." Slider replies, returning the grin.

Both boys now take out their weapons and wield them into position. The falling debris is now starting to fall fast with Matt and Slider keeping their eyes on it. A large metal sheet is now heading right for the team. Seeing the sheet, Slider grins.

Gripping his bull whip, Slider lashes his whip towards the sheet. The sheet transforms into confetti of data and disappears. With their safety assured, the team continues making their way through the falling debris.

"Nice aim Slider." Matt congratulates Slider.

"It's all in the wrist." Slider replies with a sly smile.

"This gives me an idea." Jackie speaks, now turning around to Inez. "Inez, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I'm way ahead of you Jax." Inez replies.

Both girls take out their weapons and wield them into position. A large boulder is now heading for the team with Inez locking her eyes on it as a grin forms. Quickly getting an arrow from her bag, Inez positions it in the bow.

"This one's for you Adam." Inez says, now releasing her arrow.

The arrow impacts the boulder with the boulder turning into data and disappearing.

"Nice shot Inez." Matt cheers, now giving Inez a kiss.

With the debris still falling, a laser cannon now appears and immediately locks onto the team.

"Oh no, not this time!" Jackie firmly speaks as she grips the axe. "Digit, head straight for the laser cannon."

"Say what?" Digit says in disbelief. "Jackie, that thing is libel to take every life we have."

"Digit, trust me." Jackie replies. "I have an idea."

Not wanting to go back and forth with Jackie at a time such as this, Digit does as she says and sets a course straight for the laser cannon.

The laser has begun charging as it remains locked on the team. With Digit within close range of the cannon, Jackie now slings the axe towards the cannon. The axe slices right through the cannon, instantly taking the cannon out. The cannon falls from the ceiling and into the rest of the debris below them.

"Way to go Jackie!" Slider cheers. "That was some quick thinking!"

Slider kisses Jackie on the cheek as the team now enters level 9. A window with the time on it appears alongside the team. The time left to make it out of the game is 2 hours and 5 seconds.

"Ok, we've got 2 minutes and 5 seconds left to get out of here." Hacker says. "We're not that far from level 8, so we're making good timing."

The screeching of a hoard of mutant pterodactyls now rips through the air with everyone looking ahead of them and noticing the hoard heading right for them.

"We were making good timing." Matt says, frustration taking over his tone. "I can't believe we have to face those things a second time!"

"Don't worry Matty, we don't!" Digit firmly speaks. "We're still going to make good timing on getting out of here! I guarantee that! Holding on everyone!"

Narrowing his falcon eyes on the hoard, Digit now opens his mouth as he releases his sonic scream. Blue rings appear that is heading for the hoard at rapid speed. The rings now impact the hoard, instantly wiping them out.

"Like I said, we're still going to making good timing getting out of here." Digit reiterates.

Continuing on their way out of level 9, everyone can see the gates of level 9 straight ahead.

"The gates are straight ahead!" Slider points out with excitement. "We're going to make it!"

Having said that, a giant venous carnivorous plant appears, now blocking the gates to level 9. With the plant blocking the way out, the destruction of the game now catches up to level 9 with the level beginning to fall apart.

"Adam is trying to see to it we join him in the cyber after life." Matt states.

"Not on my watch!" Hacker confirms. "He's done enough damage so the buck stops here!"

Still holding the majestic sword and shield, Hacker gets to his feet, now standing on Digit's back as the falcon is continuing his flight. Gaining his balance, Hacker eyes the plant.

"Hacker, what are you doing?" Slider questions to the cyborg, not understanding what his current action is about. "You never stand while in flight."

"I'm getting my victory win in." Hacker replies. "You guys took out the bad guy, so now I'm finishing the job! Digit, set a course straight for the plant!"

Silently agreeing with Hacker, Digit begins flying straight towards the plant with Hacker keeping his focus on the man eater. With Digit now within close range of the plant, Hacker slices right through it with his sword, instantly destroying the plant. The team is now free and clear to level 8.

Hacker takes his seat back on Digit's back as everyone now enters level 8.

The bright purple portal immediately comes into sight with smiles coming to everyone's face.

"The portal back to Cyberspace!" Inez points out with cheer.

"Hang on everyone!" Digit says. "Our next stop, Cyberspace!"

Picking up his flight speed, Digit is flying straight for the portal with no obstacles or obstructions in his way. Being just a few feet away from the portal, an Ice boulders begin raining from the sky.

Determined to let nothing stand in his way of getting the team out of the game, Digit now releases his fire breath. The heat of the attack melts the ice boulders that are falling in the way of the portal with the path becoming clear. With the path clear, the team now exits the game through the portal. They have made it out of the game with 1 minute and 2 seconds left on the clock!

The destruction of the game now consumes level 8 with the entire stage falling completely apart along with the rest of the game. Digital Doom is no more!

Cyberspace

Everyone is now thrust out of the TV and is thrown onto the floor with them falling one on top of each other in a heap. Dr. Marbles, Delete, and Buzz smile at the sight of team.

"Boss!" Delete and Buzz yells in excitement. "You're back!"

"Welcome back everyone!" Dr. Marbles greets. "I can't say enough of how proud I am of all of you!"

"Thanks doc." Slider replies, now getting to his feet as he begins holding his side. "It was no sweat. I think I ruptured my spleen the way I hit the floor."

"I'm right along with you." Matt says to Slider as he, Jackie and Inez get to their feet and dust themselves off. "I need a replacement."

"Hey, we're back in our regular clothes." Inez notices, now looking herself and the others over. "And Digit is himself again."

"I was just getting use to being in that suit of armor." Matt whines lightly. "It was pretty awesome."

"Don't worry Matt, you'll always be my knight and shining armor." Inez sweetly says to Matt.

Hearing that makes Matt smile as he embraces Inez.

"I'm going to miss being a princess." Jackie says with sadness. "I played that part perfectly."

"Don't worry Jackie, you'll always be my princess." Slider says as he embraces Jackie. Jackie's small frown now changes to a smile.

"And you'll always be my prince Slider." Jackie replies.

"Well, I for one, can say I am happy to be back here in cyberspace." Hacker speaks, his usual tone returning. "Being in that game was not healthy for a genius such as myself."

"Well Hacker, for your efforts in helping the team, I can't thank you enough as well." Dr. Marbles says to Hacker. "Your selfless act will definitely go down in my book as successful team work."

"Well, technically, I originally went into the game to stop Adam myself, but I figured since they were there, I might as well lend a hand along with my brains to help them out." Hacker replies.

"He's back." Jackie, Matt, Digit, and Slider say in unison in a matter of fact tone.

"Well regardless of why you came into the game, thanks Hacker." Matt thanks the cyborg. "You helping us out couldn't have been better timed."

"Yeah, who knew you had a caring circuit in your whole body?" Digit adds in.

"No need to thank me." Hacker replies. "It was my game after all and none of you would have known what to do without me."

"We'll take that as a 'you're welcome'." Inez smiles.

"Well everyone, it's time to head back to Control Central to let Motherboard know the good news." Dr. Marbles informs the kids and Digit. "She'll be very happy to see you all!"

"Sure thing." Matt replies. "Let's go team."

Waving to Hacker, Buzz and Delete, the team makes their way out of the wreaker's garage and to the coupe. Reaching it, they all climb in. Dr. Marbles fires up the coupe with it taking flight. With the coupe in mid air, the team now flies off the Northern Frontier and into the emerald green glow of cyberspace. Seeing the cyber coupe fly out of sight and into cyberspace, a small smile now comes to Hacker's face.

"It was nice working with you as well cybersquad." Hacker says to himself.

Turning from the entrance of the wreaker's garage, Hacker begins making his way to his lab. Buzz and Delete notice this and quickly runs to the door, instantly stopping him. After what they've done and what Hacker just went through, the last thing he needed to see was the big mess behind that door.

"What are you two doing?" Hacker questions, eyeing the two robots. "You're blocking my way. I need to go into my lab."

"You can't go in there." Delete quickly speaks up.

"And why not?" Hacker asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Because, um because." Delete begins, now turning to Buzz. "Why can't he go in there Buzzy?"

"Because we just redecorated in there, yea that's it." Buzz replies as both robots turn back to Hacker. "We wanted to surprise you for when you came back from the game. However, the job is not done so you can't go in there just yet."

"Move out of my way you two dunce buckets!" Hacker snaps. "I'm behind in my work and have plans to work on."

Not wanting to anger the cyborg, the two robots swiftly move aside as Hacker enters his lab. Closing the door behind him, the two robots immediately brace themselves for what's to come next.

After a minute of waiting, both robots hear complete silence in the lab.

"That's weird." Delete speaks up. "I thought by now he'd have a fit after discovering what we've done to his lab."

"Wait for it." Buzz replies.

"BUZZ! DELETE! YOU TWO IDIOTIC DUNCE BUCKETS!" Hacker screams.

"And there it is." Buzz says with a sigh.

* * *

And that, folks, concludes Digital Doom! The team made it out in time and are back in cyberspace! As much as Hacker hated to admit working with the team, he did make a pretty good asset to them don't you agree? Now what did Adam mean when he said that that isn't the last the team has heard of him? I'm pretty sure it was just an idle threat. Next chapter of End Game: The Conclusion and following that, the sequel to Cyberchase: End Game!

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	14. Conclusions

Chapter 14: Conclusions

'King Adam has been defeated, the kids, Hacker, and Digit successfully made it out of the game in less than 3 minutes and Digital Doom is no more! Has everything finally gone back to normal? Let's find out.'

Earth

After returning to Motherboard and informing her of their return, the cybersquad has gone to earth to celebrate their victory against King Adam. Currently, the kids are at the arcade as Matt and Slider play the popular arcade game: Asteroids. Jackie and Inez are standing back watching as their guys put their complete and total attention into the game. Slider is currently in the lead with 295 points and Matt is trying to catch up to him. He only has 209 points.

Now blasting Matt's ship, Slider breaks into a victory dance.

"I win again!" Slider cheers. "That's my 13th victory in a row! I rock! I now have 315 points! Yes!"

"You got lucky." Matt replies, completely unsatisfied with the outcome. "I want a rematch."

"I can't get lucky 13 times in a row." Slider says, continuing to enjoy his victory. "But you say you want a rematch, you got it."

"Best 20 out of 25." Matt requests.

"You're on!" Slider agrees, both boys now going back to the playing the game.

"You know its amazing Jax." Inez begins, now turning to Jackie. "You'd think after being in a video game themselves that that would be the last thing they would play for a while."

"I just don't get it." Jackie replies, shaking her head. "I know for me, I'm not going near another video game or computer game for a while."

"Me neither." Inez says as the two girls turn back to their guys.

Noticing how much fun the guys are having with their game, Inez begins looking around the arcade. Her eyes now land on a game named: Warrior Princess. It's a two player game.

"Of course if I were to go near a video game sometime in the near future, it would be that one over there." Inez says, signifying to Jackie which game she means.

Noticing what game Inez is speaking of, Jackie turns to Inez and grins.

"Best 2 out of 3?" Jackie asks.

"You're on!" Inez accepts.

Leaving from the guys' area, Inez and Jackie begin making their way to the game Inez pointed out.

So far, things are going back to normal for the cybersquad. Let's check into Control Central to see how things are working from there.

Control Central

With the kids, Hacker, and Digit out of danger, Motherboard and Dr. Marbles have begun working on a new project that involves Digital Data and Artificial Intelligence, seeing if the use of data can be helpful in times of need such as power outages, and many other emergency situations. Dr. Marbles has named the project: Artificial Digital Intelligence. After dealing with Adam and how he managed to manipulate the data of Hacker's game, Dr. Marbles decided to try to mock his techniques. Both Dr. Marbles and Motherboard are curious as to how the collaboration will work.

Currently, Dr. Marbles can be found in Control Central's laboratory and equipment room with Motherboard as he goes over the already charted plan of the project.

"Ok, the memory chip is in place, the voltage is currently at 290 Kilowatts." Dr. Marbles charts aloud. "All of the data is ready to launch, and the proto type robot A.I. is hooked up to the unit. Ok, everything is good to go. Are you ready Motherboard?"

"Yes I am doctor." Motherboard replies.

With that, Dr. Marbles now hits the data transfer switch on the computer's dashboard. Motherboard's data is being transferred from her computer unit and to the prototype that is hooked up to the unit. The data is continuing to be transferred to the prototype as Dr. Marbles monitors the progress. The transfer is now complete as Dr. Marbles turns off the transfer.

Pressing the 'on' button on the robot, the machine now comes alive. The robot turns to Dr. Marbles and blinks.

"So far so good." Dr. Marbles say to himself. "Motherboard?"

"Transfer successful Dr. Marbles." The robot speaks in Motherboard's voice.

"Just to make sure, demonstrate a couple of movements." Dr. Marbles requests.

Motherboard does as she is told as she moves the arms and legs, along with picking up Dr. Marble's container of sparkplugs on the dashboard.

"Perfect!" Dr. Marbles cheers. "Everything looks to be in order. A few more adjustments in the wattage wouldn't hurt, but otherwise, the Digital A.I. plan is a go! I'm going to transfer you back to the computer now Motherboard."

Flipping the transfer switch back on, Motherboard's data is now transferred back to the computer unit with the A.I. robot going back to being motionless. Dr. Marbles now begins adjusting the wattage.

"The collaboration of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Data seems very successful Dr." Motherboard praises. "The use of data for all emergency situations will sweep the worlds."

"That it will Motherboard." Dr. Marbles agrees, continuing to adjust the wattage between the computer unit and the robot A.I.

Everything seems to be ok with Control Central, but what about the Northern Frontier?

Wreaker's Garage

After finding his lab a complete and total wreck due to Buzz and Delete looking for the owner's manual to his game system, Hacker is making the two robots clean up the mess. Currently, very loud yelling can be heard coming from the garage.

"What were you two thinking when you did this?" Hacker continues fussing. "I know exactly what you two were thinking, you WEREN'T thinking that's what you two were doing!"

Both robots continue cleaning up the mess as they now put the books back on the shelves.

"You were redecorating in here." Hacker continues. "The next time I am gone for any reason, I am locking my lab up so you two dunce bucket's can't come in it for any reason! And for this, you two are grounded from playing Guards Of The Dragon for a month!"

Both robots now turn to Hacker with horrified expressions on their metal faces.

"A month?" Delete asks, his voice leaving his throat.

"Without our favorite game?" Buzz follows up, his voice also leaving his throat.

"You heard me!" Hacker replies back in a growl. "No Guards Of The Dragon for a Month!"

Both robots release a light whine as they continue cleaning up Hacker's lab.

Well as it appears, everything is back to normal and everyone has been able to move on with their lives after King Adam. However, can it be said that even in the Digital World, things are back to normal?

While Hacker is making Buzz and Delete clean up his lab with his supervision, the game system in the other room now switches on, which in turn, makes the TV come on. A digital binary stream from the bottom of the television screen now makes its way to the middle of the screen as it forms into a face with an evil smile.

To Be Continued…….

* * *

Everything looks to be back to normal, but holy cow what is that? It looks like the adventures of the cybersquad have not yet ended as they may have to face another battle. Will they? Who's to say, but keep reading to find out in the sequel: Cyberchase: Digital Catastrophe!

See you all in Cyberspace!

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